Please, Oh Please!

Ever since I was a little girl, one of my very favorite fairytales has been Rapunzel. Sadly, Disney has never made this awesome little story into a movie...not yet anyway. I've heard a rumor that my long wait will soon be over!

I really hope so!

My Guy Christian

One of my very favorite shows is Extreme Makeover, Home Edition. I absolutely love it and have yet to get through an episode without crying. I look forward to it every week, but especially this week because my first boyfriend, Christian Slater was the celebrity guest. I had the biggest crush on him when I was growing up.

I'll tell you what...he still does it for me.

I know he has somewhat of a checkered "real" life but I find him so adorable. And, he seems to never get older. I think he looks exactly the same as he did 20 years ago.

Yummy.

A Trip Down Memory Lane...

Today has been an incredibly l-o-n-g day. Definitely not in a bad way, but long, nonetheless. I had guitar class after work (It's going very well. My fingers are sufficiently calloused so that I can 'play' - a very loose term at this point - relatively pain-free) then after class I was supposed to go to a Relief Society dinner/meeting. (For those non-Mormons who may have stumbled onto my blog, Relief Society is the women's organization in the LDS church). I wasn't opposed to going to this meeting (after all, dinner was included) but I was really, really tired after class and just wanted to go home, throw on a pair of stretchy pants, and veg on the couch - you know, maybe watch the Biggest Loser while munching on a bag of Salt and Vinegar Lays (bagged heaven, if you ask me) followed up with some Rocky Road ice cream. (Just kidding...I haven't done that once - at least not this season). But, I decided to go because these things are usually really good if I don't really feel like going. Dinner was good - an array of home-made soups and some yummy desserts. However, the biggest 'treat' of the night was the speaker who followed dinner.

M. Catherine Thomas is an LDS author who is simply amazing. She just tells you how it is and is such a smart lady. I have read one chapter of her book Spiritual Lightening (only because it was an assignment for another Relief Society meeting) but I thoroughly enjoyed the one chapter and look forward to reading the rest of the book as well as her other book and various articles. BUT, my favorite part of this dear sister is that she and her husband served a mission in the CANARY ISLANDS!!! The just got home about a year ago and I was so excited when I found that out that I almost screamed. When she started speaking, she told of an experience she had in Santa Brigida, Gran Canaria. I nearly burst with excitement. That was my second area where I served for 4 months. I was way more excited about the fact that she had lived in the islands and had experienced the same awesomeness/craziness of that part of the world than I would have been if she had been talking about Hailey, Idaho where I grew up. It's just such a remote place and so few people have been there. It was so awesome to talk to her about specific places and crazy Canarian things. We didn't get to talk long, but I'm still smiling about it.

Which has made me think a ton about my mission. It's so crazy that 10 years ago, I was a lowly hermana pounding the streets of the Canary Islands teaching people about the LDS church and sharing my love and testimony of Christ. It's almost surreal. It's been so long that I hardly ever think about it anymore. I most definitely learned more about myself, the Gospel and the world in those short 18 months than I have maybe the whole rest of my life. I am so thankful for my time there. Many, many good things about me and my character came out of the short time spent in Las Islas Canarias. It's my one of my biggest dreams to get to go back there. I occasionally hear from a couple of my dear friends but I don't keep in touch with them as much as I should.

I literally took 100's of pictures while I was there (so unlike me, I know) - mostly because I saw things that I had never seen before - or since, for that matter. But, sadly, I took them on a 35 mm camera so some are in a book, but most are in a shoe box and I have no digital copies of them. I need to change that but, for now, I found some cool pics online that document well the beauty I experienced of this wonderful corner of the world. Of course, I spent a very large majority of my time working and didn't play/rest much but it was awesome to have such an incredibly beautiful backdrop to my missionary labors. The islands are absolutley beautiful and the Canarian people are so, so great.

The islands are located a couple hundred miles off the coast of Morocco. Some say that on super clear days, you can actually see Africa from the farthest east island of Lanzarote (I never did, but we did see the neighboring island of Fuerteventura sometimes). I started my mission on Lanzarote. It was such a shock when I landed in my first area. aside from getting air sick on the itty bitty plane (thanks Dad for passing that gene on) I took from the main island of Gran Canaria to Lanzarote, the first thing I noticed was that all of the buildings were white with a green door. No joke. (The last pics on this post are of Lanzi). Apparently, a very influential artist who lived there at one time passed an ordinance that everyone had to live in a white house with a green door. It was actually pretty cool. I remember feeling like I was living in Lego Land because all of the houses are square with flat roofs. Also, the wind blows like crazy on Lanzarote. And, the only green things on that island are the doors, so there is A LOT of dust blowing around. A real-life desert island. One afternoon, my companion Hna Christensen and I were walking through a large dirt field to get to an appointment. I can't remember exactly what was going on, but I do remember that I wasn't in a very good mood (I probably shouldn't admit that). When we were about half way through the field, I stopped and screamed, "Why can't the wind just pick a direction and blow!" I was so annoyed! The wind seriously never stops blowing there and it rarely blows in one direction. While I was having my little breakdown, my companion also stopped, looked at me and just started laughing which made me laugh and my crabby mood immediately disappeared. We laughed the rest of the way to our appointment. I absolutely love so many things about that place and my mission in general.

Well, as much fun as this trip down memory lane has been, I won't continue to bore you 2 or 3 readers who actually look at my blog and I'll just get on to the pictures so you can see just how incredible the islands are. How I can't wait to get there again with my camera. The following pictures will just have to tide me over until then. The islands really are this beautiful. I saw things like this everyday.

I saw my first black sand beach on the island of Tenerife. It was gorgeous! Of course, we couldn't hang out there, but it was so fun to look at! Oddly enough, the very best Chinese buffet I've ever been to was just off that beach. It was so weird that amazing Chinese food could be found on a remote Spanish island. Just one of the many crazy things I love about Spain.

Some of the beaches are 'clothing optional,' so we had to be careful where we looked when walking close to the beach, which happened a lot because all of the islands are pretty small. I met so many people who had never left the island where they were born and had no intention of ever doing so. They could not fathom driving more than a few minutes to get anywhere. Of course, if I could see this everyday, I probably wouldn't feel much need to leave either.

So, if you know of anyone going to the Canary Islands who needs a tour guide, translator, nanny, photographer, massuese - whatever - let me know!

guess who won the workout competition at work???

I DID!

It's not so much about the money (even though it's great). I just feel so awesome about the fact that I worked really hard, even when I didn't feel like it and the hard work paid off. I'm not usually so good with follow-through so this little victory means a lot. The biggest reward is that I feel fantastic. I really haven't lost weight, but I've lost inches and I feel amazing. I'm sleeping better, have tons more energy and am just generally in a good mood. But, probably the biggest reward is that my back hardly ever hurts now which is awesome. So, now that I have the workout habit going well, I'm going to focus on nutrition which, for me, is the hardest part.

So, I promised that I wasn't going to blog about this, but I'm so cheesed about stupid Bachelor Jake's decision that I have to vent a little. Vienna...really??? I know that I shouldn't care and that much of that show is staged for ratings (who knows how much, if any of it is real?) What really bugs me about is that Jake's whole 'thing' was that he wanted to find a girl who was beautiful on the inside and out - and then he goes and chooses someone who is neither. Vienna is disgusting: from her bleach blond awful extensions to her fake boobs and fake tan. And what's the deal with her crazy eyes? Can she not look at one spot more than 5 seconds? How can he just over-look that she worked at Hooters??? Can he actually see her as the mother of his children??? Agh. She's so annoying. Seriously, I give it a month, maybe two.

And, for the record, I think Ali is pretty whiney. I may have to sit the next season out. I probably won't, but I'm definitely tempted.

Now on to better things...

I started a guitar class last week. I had my second class tonight and I'm so excited to be a rock star one day soon - okay, not really. I don't quite have those ambitions, but I am excited to rock out my favorite songs. I'm so hoping I get good quick because I am so not good right now - or really getting any better thus far. However, my fingers hurt like they've never hurt before, so that's progress, right? That guarantees that I'll be really good, right? Here's hoping. I have a long road ahead of me, but I'm very excited. I just hope I get callouses soon and that I can be disciplined enough to keep it up till I can actually play songs.