smile. life is good.

let's be honest for a minute.  each day right now is tiring/long/busy/exhausting..... etc.  {i haven't mentioned that before on the blog before, right? ..... right? ok, so maybe i have.... but, whatever}  it is the end of semester for me, and the ten-day countdown to john's gmat test is underway.  each day is 30-hours long and by the end of the night, ponies are prancing around my head and i pretty much look like this.  

so, life is busy.  but life is also incredibly wonderful.  for instance:

1.  i played soccer outside today.  outside people!  how happy is that?

2.  john gets home in 1.5 hours.  {that sounds like a long time, but i'm thrilled anyways.}

3.  and grey's anatomy has a new episode tonight.  {madison is coming over to watch it with me, obviously.}

i mean really, isn't life just great?  i have a great husband who loves me.  i have worthwhile things to do with my time.  i have direction.  i have family and friends to rely on.  i have couch to curl up on and drink hot chocolate.  i have something to live for.

in clinical today, i met a patient who lost her kidney function.  then lost her husband.  then stopped taking her anti-rejection meds.  then her body started rejecting her donated kidney.  i didn't know what to do for her and how to help her.  {after looking at my nursing diagnosis book, i found some interventions for her.  but really, some of the interventions seemed rather futile.  what can i do to really help her?  frustrating.}  i couldn't talk to her about her problems or depression, because i have never been depressed.  i have never even been really, really sad!  not for very long anyway.  okay, well now i feel like i'm just bragging.  but that's not my intent, i swear! 

in a nutshell: 

i am blessed,

and i am thankful for it.

so very, very thankful.  

smile.

life is good.

pho

remember this post?
well, we enjoyed pho once again.
+ ryan and janessa this time, which is the best,
but without john, which is the worst.
in the end,
he came home,
and we ate ice cream.

to do:

1.  finish all my papers and assignments
2.  attend all my final labs
3.  make it through the next two pharm and med-surg lectures
4.  study study study
5.  take my lab final
6.  take my pharm final
7.  take my med-surg final
8.  burn all my books

{note:  i am not bitter, just ready to be done with this semester}

just a fun little tidbit from yesterday:

family.

john and i are pretend-parents for the weekend while my parents are in california.  we were willing to take care of the youngest chillins because my parents haven't been on a real vacation for just them two for about 10.7 years.  and let's face it - we kinda love spending time with the rugrats anyway.

yesterday, there were disasters.  by disasters i mean, no one got hurt, but well - we had an unfortunate plumbing problem.  and john was at work so..... guess who had to try and fix said plumbing problem?

let's just say, it was an adventure.  

in the end, john saved the day.  but i cried once and dry heaved about twenty times.

anyways, glad to say the plumbing is fixed in my parent's household.  and i've learned that there's pretty much nothing that john wouldn't do for me.  {cause let's face it, that is true love}.

after the small excitement, the girls went to the young women's conference, 

and the boys went to mcdonald's and then came home and played video games, {obviously}.

after the conference, we took these at five-guys:

and in all honesty, we have had so much fun playin with the neff's.  who doesn't love this:

{lots of giggles as they play on the iPad.  and yes, andy jack did in fact go to church with his hair like that}

relief.

after many hours cramming my brain-

and watching byu get slaughtered in 5-minute overtime,

we decided we need food.

{i was turning into moody, grouchy, don't-look-at-me-i'm-volatile paige.  what with the outcome of the game, combined with no food, well, just ask shmohn.....}

burgers we needed.

and burgers we did get.

"happy!" said my tummy.

it's a shame their fries are so gosh darn terrible.  

pretty sure i am going to have a heart attack if i spend more than ten seconds on this post....

but i just wanted you to see this beautiful picture i took a few days ago,

and also i want you to know that i really really miss last week, 

when i didn't have a test to study for.

that is all.  

pencils are becoming obsolete.

seriously!

i take all my notes on my computador these days.  i don't even carry a binder with me.  

so when my teacher brings a hard copy of the slides, my nose crinkles up in a kind of frustrated protest.  because of course, now i have to dig through the garbage dump of my backpack in search of a pencil.

cue gasp.

after looking through my backpack and finding everything from a tourniquet to gobstoppers to crumbs to carrots to wrappers and papers and tylenol bottles and whatever that was..... {but no pencil!}  i realize:

hey, i just carry the necessities.  i like to walk onto campus prepared for the onslaught of medical knowledge that's about to be shoved down my throat.  therefore, snacks and a refreshing dose of daily tylenol take precedence over a pencil that i may or may not ever use.

just my thoughts.

loving the rain, sun.

it was my dear friend, laur's birthday on friday!

we celebrated the day of her birth by going to spaghetti factory and catching up on all the exciting things going on in everybody's lives!  i loved seeing these girls and spending time with them.  john was a good sport and came along too!  i forced him to be in the picture with us, naturally.  

laur is such a wonderful friend and it was so fun to spend time with these girls!  now that i am married i don't see them nearly enough!   

today:  i am loving the rain and sun.  i am loving the warm rain as it falls and the sun as it creeps out and dries everything up afterwards.  i am loving the flare on these pictures and the distinct outlines of those rainclouds.  

i am loving listening to the new glee songs madison gave me.  

i am usually able to find joy in the simplest of things.  

learning.

learning.
sometimes, learning can be very, very hard.
your mistakes seem big....
your achievements small.
your happy moments farther and fewer in-between.
why does it have to be like that?
why can't it always be sugar plums and faries and all happy-go-lucky?
i guess life is just sometimes like that.

some favorites.....

baking bread....

puttin on the ritz....

soaking in the sun....

and eating pie....

hope you have a happy friday!

the past few days, i have lonesomely watched countless hours of tv....

 which distracts me from my homework, naturally.

and john has been working his butt off every single day.....

{getting home in between 9:30 and 10:30pm}.

he comes home and just plops onto the couch (exhausted).

and i'm just thrilled to watch tv with a big 6-foot-4 redhead to cling to.

amnesia.

sometimes, i wonder if i have amnesia.  

i mean how often am i sitting in a test, and have studied for it for 10,000 hours, and yet have gone blank, even though i knew the answer right before i sat down.  how often am i reading 50 pages of nursing whatever and then stop and realize, i can't remember what i just read, or even what it was about.  maybe nutrition and food? hmmm.... i love food.  i am so gosh darn hungry right now......

see???

and just now, as i was sitting on my couch getting ready to blog, i thought, 

i can't even remember what i did last night.  {[i mean, seriously, was i on drugs?] i can assure you that i wasn't, but that's what it felt like...}  

the point, is that i am very forgetful.  and it sometimes gets me into trouble.  fortunately, i have a darling husband who remembers things better than i do, and can remind me what we did last night.  which was eat cafe rio {two free meals, thank you so very much vati!}, and snuggle on the couch while watching a movie.

oh, and made cookies.

sometimes i am so scary and crabby.... but fortunately, then john takes my hand and makes it all better.

cheesy, right?

well, yesterday was one of those days.  

fortunately, john helped me through my ridiculous tantrum by being silent and holding my hand.

i felt instantly better.  

and then he bought me dinner at my favorite place.... 

as we watched byu neck in neck with the lobos.  {go jimmer!}

we left at the last possible minute to make our movie, 

and since it was opening night, got front-row seats!  

{don't worry, i realize front-row seats in the movie theater aren't actually a good thing}

what a view!  {heh. heh.}

sorry, no pictures of us.  john is boycotting the picture thing.  he makes weird faces and then gets upset at me for taking ugly pictures, which are apparently not allowed on this blog.....

hence the picture of legs, as we ended the night by watching highlights of the game.

friday nights are just so fun.  

lately, i am loving life. i am loving life for many reasons:

playing with fun photo apps as i walk to campus.

eating butterscotch chocolate chips.

coming home to find that my husband made the bed before he left the house this morning.
anticipating the meal i am going to make tomorrow.
sitting on the porch and soaking in the cool night air.

writing a letter to a friend.

i just love life. 

sometimes, i like to watch ok-go music videos on youtube.....

please watch this, it's hilarious/entertaining/precious.

before i knew john.....

photo by randi brunt

• the only weezer song i had ever listened to was "beverly hills"
• i would have spontaneous, wild dance parties in public places all by myself {my friends thought it was hilarious, but i don't thing the rest of the sighted world thought it such a pleasure}
• i had never been out of the country {oh wait, new mexico counts, right?}
• the most adventurous food i had ever tried was tempura shrimp {now i've eaten squid and raw fish and other questionably-tasting things.  now i could totally survive in taiwan}
• i wanted to curl up in a ball in utah and never do anything too exciting for the rest of my life
• i never wore my hair up - and i mean never.  {all guys are supposed to like it down, right?}
• i didn't eat cereal full of surgary-deliciousness
• i wouldn't use shower gel {but now i've realized that i not only want to be clean, i want to smell good}
• i wasn't able to relax and do nothing - ever.  {now i can veg with him on the couch for hours and not even know how the time has flown}
• i never played video games
• i didn't eat out anywhere unless they served burgers and fries
• i worshiped the gods of nuts, toffee, and milk chocolate {ok, i still do that}
• i never was so happy
• i thought spanish was the sexiest language
• the most important thing to me was graduating and becoming a nurse
• i had a roadmap for everything i was going to do in life, and when i was going to do it {john came about three years early. heh heh.}

but some things haven't changed:
i still am super ultra picky about movies
i still like to watch guy-flicks.  {we're talkin' the more explosions, the better}
my favorite thing is still family
i still drink diet coke like it's goin out of style
my life still revolves around food

thanks john, for introducing me to so many new things.  in addition to everything above, you have truly helped me become a better person by helping me work on the few things that make me not-so-great.... but helping me keep the things that make me who i am {and i'll admit, maybe sometimes great.}  i love you.

silly.

a few weeks ago, we took this silly picture of us girls at cafe rio.

we were laughing so hard and just having a great time.  

eden couldn't even keep the camera still.  

love life!

no-show.

john left work asap so that we could get to the basketball game.

{seeing as this is a very important time in any byu student's life.... oh yeah, and for the team....}

so we snarffed down dinner.

{delicious, thank you very much}

and then john and i scuttled to the marriot center for the byu vs. new mexico game.

i was okay with sitting in the nosebleeds section,

and since we were arriving a mere thirty minutes early,

and it was going to be a huge game, after all.

but wait- not a single seat left.

not another all-student-sports-pass-ticket holder to be let into the game.

not one.  

you have got to be kidding.

so we walked home.

{dejectedly.}

and watched the game at home.  which has it's benefits!

games are quite nice in the comfort of your own home, on your own couch....

with free water available and lots of comfy warm blankets....

and a stocked pantry.....

{basically us lazy, cheap people's dream}

plus john got to study.

see that "gmat" book in the corner?

only two-ish weeks and counting.  

he's a man's man.

i am sad about not being able to show off our matching, vintage, byu t-shirts at the game though. 

i had then screen-printed especially for john, you know.

and that pretty much sums it up.

entertaining.

on the phone:
me:  how was the new movie unknown?
mom:  i wasn't crazy about it, but you know, i was entertained.

to my husband:
me:  well, we could go see unknown tonight.  my mom said she liked it.  she didn't love it, but she said it was entertaining.

after the movie, the couple next to us:
him: well, that was good.  you know, it was entertaining.
her:  yeah i agree.

i just laughed.  entertainment:  that's why i go to movies, after all.

lifesaver.

my friend madison is a lifesaver!  when i was wallowing in self-pity and sickness,

she brought me glee, a vitamin water, and chicken noodle soup.

i feel loads better.  madison, you are the best!