My Pinterest... aka a bunch of screenshots from my phone

I think the screenshot feature of a phone is the fanciest, best thing ever; I use it liberally. And in order to continue procrastinating blogging about actual life events and memories, here's a modpodge scroll through some of the random things I encountered on my phone that I felt warranted preservation:

1. The top (at the time at least...) definition of 'Jana' on urbandictionary.com  Scarily accurate, right?? I might start reciting it every morning. The 'STELLAR and hella out of this world' bit might become a t-shirt...

2. OH MAN, this was a long ago facetime encounter (as evidenced by baby Carma! so cute!) where once again I saved Quinn's life/scholastic career. He had a massive paper due and the formatting? I think? wasn't working so his favorite sister stayed up laaate and figured it out. Man I'm amazing. (STELLAR, one might even say...)

3. Okay, let's be honest, if I had a pinterest it would be dominated by religious/inspiration quotes. I love this one, not because of the reminder that we don't have to be perfect but moreso because of the reminder that we do actually need to be getting better haha.

4. Okay, and the rest of my 'pins' (am I using that correctly??) would be things that make me laugh. Exhibit A:

Come on, that's hilarious. And true. It's no wonder I can't handle actual roller coasters, my daily emotional roller coaster is exhausting!!

 5. Okay well this was basically the best thing ever - seriously five of my favorite guys sitting around a table. I'm on the computer and thus have no emoji access but imagine the smiley face with hearts for eyes right here ;).

6. Okay, well here's where my pinterest analogy breaks down because this is a screenshot of a text but can we all die laughing at how cute Chuck is??

7. And back to church stuff! Love verse 17 - such a relief that I don't have to have all the answers right now; my testimony of God's love suffices.

8. Jack hahahaha. I mean, we can all relate to this right??

 9. Okay, sometimes I screenshot stuff to send to my brothers as a gentle nudge to text me more frequently OR THEIR HEALTH WILL SUFFER.

10. Oh man, last fall I found the funniest twitter/fb/instagram account called Honest Toddler. So. Hilarious. 

11. I mean, this isn't as classy as the standard I usually hold my blog to... but I laughed really hard and then it made me really think, so....

12. Okay, this is reaching back but it's just some smacktalk from our fantasy football draft and Quinn and my mom just make me laugh so hard.

13. Oh man, this was my lock screen on my phone for the last month or so. Good stuff.

14. Okay, another church one but this is a President Uchtdorf analogy that is just perfection. 

15. This was back in December, I pulled up the current weather for everywhere we have parents/siblings (Boise was the same as Nampa) so that I'd know who to be jealous of - spoiler alert, it was Sam.

16. Okay, I laughed sooooo hard at this the morning after the big powerball drawing. 

 

17. Ack, I should probably chant this every morning too....

18. Okay, I texted this to Chuck because this is SO Carma hahahahaha:

19. And I should have texted this to Chuck because this is SO me hahahaha:

20. I did some personality analysis thing last fall when they were all the rage and it ended up being pretty flattering... so I'm sure it was legit...

 

21. Okay I had to screenshot this exchange with Chuck's amazingly talented and high achieving cousin Anne. Love her. Mostly platonically...

  22.  Right??

23. Okay, I might start chanting this to my kids every day. #lifegoals #parentinggoals

24. Okay screen shots come in super handy when Chuck's co-workers post pictures of the gang at work! This is forever ago but I love it:

25. Yes. A good day is Carma on one leg and Jack on the other. A bad day is them shoving each other off and then attempting to reclaim 'king of the mountain' bragging rights...

26. Haha, I pull this picture up when guilt about housework or cereal for dinner starts creeping in!

27. Love this from Elder Holland.

28. Okay, one night I found the scarymommy instagram account and laughed my hiney off whilst screenshotting all my faves - you know, the ones that ring SO true and you feel so validated that you're not the only one??

29. Oh hi Carma.

30. Possibly my favorite part of Chuck's days off...

31. Okay, this guy is a frequent contributor to scarymommy and Chuck looked at me weird when I laughed so hard at this one, but come on! So funny!

32. We have a running joke in my family about what it really means if you tell someone you're "on the freeway". #stillinthedriveway #sometimesinthehouse

33. Oh man, Elder Holland for the win again. I've had more than my share of encounters with angels of the earthly variety... and absolutely felt the strength and spirit of the heavenly kind... and my goal is to do my part to be that angel for others in need. 

34. This might become a sign somewhere in my house - like on the back of the front door maybe? Love.

35. Aaaand we'll just end with this gem of Carma as my lockscreen last year. I used to do a screenshot of the time when I kind of woke up to nurse her because come 7am I honestly had no idea how often it had been... and so the 3-4...5... screenshots provided much needed validation that I really was that tired, haha.

Isn't everyone feeling prettttty grateful right about now that I haven't graced Pinterest with my presence?? You're all welcome ;).

September Solo Sojourn South to See Some Sisters!

{okay, technically for that title to be correct I should have seen Eden instead of Quinn BUT it's easier to visit a teacher at work than it is a pediatric neurotrauma nurse (what's that? yes, my sister-in-law is amazing) aaaand let's face it, I've always thought of Quinn as more of a sister than a brother anyways ;)}

Well, since I'm leaving town this weekend to voyage into the wilds of Idaho with some girlfriends, I figured I should blog about the last time I left Chuck home with all four kids to remind myself a) how good it is for me to get away and b) that the kids will have a stellar time and hardly miss me because riiiight about now is when I start having anxiety about leaving my family. 

When I drove away on the aforementioned trip, it's possible that Carma and I were both crying and it's also possible that one of us got over it a bit quicker than the other, based on this text exchange from when I stopped for gas on the way out of town:

Luckily, minus some slightly weather-related slowdowns, the rest of my drive was smooth and tear-free and even included a D.I. stop, yay!

And at the end of the road was a reunion with the one and only Heidi, yayyyyy! We hadn't seen each other since she amazingly came up for my baby shower... a year and a half previously. Something about she graduated from college and moved to Boston and is a grown-up now. Whatev. Anyways, she was in Utah for a wedding and I obviously called dibs on some of her free time that week and I'm so glad I did!!

My visit was super low-key and poorly documented but so fun nonetheless. Some highlights: going for a walk because Courtney (wisely!) locks her door, the randomly high volume of water Utah received during my visit, corrupting Hudson with youtube videos, eating way too many of Courtney's amazing mint brownies, taking turns reading Mindy aloud and dying laughing, and just general bonding with Heid and Court, aka the best BFSCs ever. 

One of my favorite moments happened as the three of us drove up to Ogden one night - as per tradition, Heidi and I had the radio up and were belting out the song like our very. lives. depended. on. it. when from the backseat, Courtney, aka the voice of reason, pointed out that maybe we should find out WHY Adam Levine was getting locked away before we pledged that we'd love him the same hahahahaha.

  Another highlight of the trip was seeing Katie again and meeting Nora! Ohhhh she's a doll, and kept us all so thoroughly entertained during dinner with Gloria and Reed. Nora is just two weeks younger than Carma and it was so fun to notice their similarities and differences. One of these days we'll get the two of them together...

We laughingly lined up for pictures in front of the fireplace - where we used to make the guys line up for a picture before Priesthood session back in the days when we actually made it down for conference weekends. I'm so grateful for my friendship with all of these amazing Smith women!

Of course, seeing Nora did make me miss my kids even more, but luckily I was receiving reassuring texts from Chuck about their well-being... ha! Such a funny guy ;). (My very nice, not-old, sweet mom watched them Tuesday evening while Chuck was at the church for appointments.)

I did get some proof-of-life texts as well, which I was happy to return :).

I sneaked over one afternoon to see Melissa and Amanda and all the kids, which was SO fun. Melissa treated me to Fiiz, which I had never heard of (although it seems like it's steadily making its way north, so if it ever comes to Idaho I'll get to play it cool and be like, "Oh, Fiiz? Yeah, I've been there. Cool place, nice vibe. Good hot chocolate.")

 Mallory and I were having some slight difficulties coordinating our photogenic selfie game, but things improved once we added Courtney and Lily ;). You can tell this is before we sat down because Courtney is still willing to be seen with us - once we took our seats, some kids she knew from school came in and she immediately made every effort to act as if our sitting at a booth together was somehow assigned and she didn't know any of us hahahaha. I mean, it's possible I was talking loudly in an accent at that time, BUT WHEN DON'T I?? 

Oh man, talk about being grateful for friendships! I've talked about finding out on our first date that Chuck had two nieces and that allure of being an aunt right away - but I was also very psyched to hear about his two sisters. Amanda and Melissa are two of the most capable, thoughtful, generous, friendly, beautiful women I know and I love them both a ton. Also, I love how James senses he's the odd man out in this picture and is really working to hie his way out of it ;).

 Thursday morning I concluded my northern-ish Utah aspect of the trip (well, minus driving back through it later in the day...) and headed even more south to meet Quinner for lunch. Along the way I invited myself over to see my old BYU Deseret Towers neighbor Sherry! It was a random and quick visit but fun to see her in person after staying in touch via fb/blogs for the last 12 years :).

And then I rolled in to Quinn's school where they did everything short of taking a blood sample before letting me into the school (that's a lie, but I did have to enter my car make/model into their fancy computer, which then printed out a sticker ID for me) but it all made sense after I found Quinn's classroom unattended and promptly texted him pictures of me sitting at his desk and rifling through his wallet - no wonder they pegged me from the start as a security risk ;).

 Quinner and I lunched and chatted and laughed because we think we're hilarious and Quinn shared his chocolate chip cookies with me and then I punched him in the stomach in front of his students because he wouldn't stop clicking the camera button (I seriously have like twenty five versions of our selfie...) and I just love him and I wished I had planned better so that I had time to stick around town and see Eden and Isaac and Leila, but alas I had to hit the open road.

 Aaaand what a road it was! Seriously craziest range of skies ever (which I may or may not have photographed whilst driving.... but honestly, it's pressing like two buttons, you know? And I'll have you know that the first officer who ever pulled me over told me I was an excellent driver sooooo....). And of course I squeezed in possibly a couple more D.I. stops along the way :).

And then I made it home to my sweet babies and my even sweeter husband, who held down the fort amazingly well in my absence and will do so again this weekend :)... at least that's what I'll be chanting when I start feeling twitchy about leaving my five favorite people behind on Friday afternoon... but I think by the time I wake up Saturday morning after a solid night's sleep I'll be feeling pretty good about it haha. Yay for girl time away!