Chaos.

That would be one word to describe this last week.

It was a week that completely was not following my long tradition of routine.

It involved two days where I worked 12+ hour days.

It contained a drama-filled work experience.

aka tomorrow, I'll now be training my 6th (?) person at this job in two years. AND I didn't even work there last year. Let's just say, it's good they hired me two years ago.

Anyway, the week was filled with lots of babysitting, lots of rain, hanging out with old friends, working a ton, etc.

And next week is going to be even crazier, I'm sure.

Especially since I need to pack for 2.5 trips. Woot.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, when I went to the store the other day, I walked in and saw rows and rows of this:

That's right, it's Passover goodies. And I literally started laughing out loud when I saw all the 'grape juice'. I miss the good ol' days of celebrating Passover in October with these two:

I miss you, Jerusalem.

Footwear.

You know that awkward moment when you're driving home from work, and you're going to fill up the car with gas at the station on the way home that is usually a couple cents cheaper than everywhere else? And you're excited when you see that the gas is only $4.17/gal?

Yep, that happened yesterday.

In other news, I've realized in the past couple of days that I'm super jealous that instagram isn't in the android store. (So yes, that might explain all my recent phone pictures. Don't judge). But tonight, I decided to make an end of it.

And I googled "is there an instagram evquivalent on android?" because I needed something.

And one of the first suggestions was Snaptastic. Which I promptly downloaded and tried it out. Below are the pictures (before/after) of my recent app shenanegians.

{original}

{edited}

As you can see, there are some differences between the two. In the edited one, the color pops more, which is nice. But I don't like the watermark on the bottom.

So yeah, we'll see what happens. I also downloaded PhotoFunia and we'll see if I like that one more. Or maybs you'll just get to see unedited photos from my broken little phone (which is still working like a charm. Love.)

Also, the above pictures show what my life looked like today. Rainboots and puddles. And I'm sure that's what the rest of the week is going to entail as well. Which I love.

Love the rain, love my rainboots, love springtime. :)

(I just hope that when make my grand return to Rexburg in less that two weeks that it'll be spring... and not winter.)

Speaking of spring, I bought these lovelies today.

And as I was buying them, I texted my sister saying

"Currently buying my wedding shoes."

They'll literally be perfect for my wedding.

And they're already so comfortable.

In love.

[source.]

Over and out.

Lovelies + Special Brithday.

Sometimes, I like to see who facebook thinks my favorite/best friends are.

Especially since this is obviously a very good use of time, don't be jeal.

And I do this by checking out my little page and seeing who they display in the little 'friends' box.

And then, if I approve of who they've chosen, I'll take a nice little screen shot. Like so.

{This day it included the two seesters, my faves from JRu, the husband and brother-in-law. }

{A few days later, the some of the HHS crew, my fave Canadian roommate ever, my BYU-Idaho/Jerusalem buddy, Kaylie (the sweetest girl in the world) & the other 2/3 of JED.}

{And a couple of days later, lots of the sames; 2/3 of JED, the other half of Chanel, the Oregon clubbers, etc. Love.}

[This is technically Nicole's. hahaha but sometimes I like to pretend that it's mine because I la-love these people too. :) ]

And! This one is from literally two seconds ago:

{I've also included the Hebrew ad on the side of the page. Love.}

I don't really understand how facebook decides who to put there, but I love seeing some of my favorites everytime I decide I need to stalk myself on the fb.

ANYWAY, it's also this girl's brithday:

{And when I say this girl, I mean the girl on the right, with the mane.}

{This would be little Shmackely in front of a camel... in my favorite place in the world.}

{Yep, we're supes romantic.}

{And sometimes we ride our camels through the Egyptian desert together.}

Happy 17th birthday little Shmackely! :)

You're so old. Uhlll.

Love you! :)

Nappy Time.

My work schedule is crazy.

And by that, I mean that it's super inconsistent and impromptu.

But despite this fact, I've gotten in a pretty bad habit when it comes to my job:

I've started taking naps.

At work.

But before you judge, let me explain.

I only take naps when little Michael is sleeping.

(I mean, c'mon, it's naptime.)

But it's like, become a routine.

I wake up (far too early),

get to their house at 9 (after witnessing too many almost accidents),

sit there for approximately an hour until both the parents leave,

put little Michael to bed,

sit outside his room and take a nap,

wake up approximately an hour or so later,

do other things until he wakes up,

etc.

So, it's not like I'm taking a nap on a supes comfortable bed or something.

I sleep on the floor.

Right outside his room so I can hear if he wakes up.

And they're just little power naps.

However,

on Wednesday,

I had another task that I needed to accomplish.

And it had to be done while he was sleeping.

Here is a little picture of what I did.

(Originally, I was just going to use twistable crayons that I brought from home but! I found these awesome colored pencils and had to use them instead.)

Who's this birthday card for, you might ask? Well, let's just say I was recruited by someone to help out with a birthday extravaganza. Someone who happens to live in Israel. It's great. :) (Just call me Marsha).

I love secret surprises and birthdays and I love even more being recruited to help this lovely family. :)

Boston in the Fall.

Remember Junior?

He is now the first in a long list of missionaries I know going to Boston.

It's actually becoming a little freaky.

First we had little Ludlow.

Then the Packards (Good #3).

And now, I just found out that little Bushnell is going there too. He just got his call last week.

I work for his dad at one of the little CPA offices.

They've been trying to talk to someone who knows (almost) Pres. Packard and everyone they've talked to, doesn't know him... until me.

So first Ronald had a nice little chat with me about it.

And then Lisa called (all the way from Utah) to talk to me about him.

For five minutes.

Presh. They just want to make sure that he'll be in good hands.

So for anyone else who is expecting a mission call: I'm predicting that you're going to Boston.

(And that's also where my family thinks it would be so funny for me to go. I should just join the club.)

Shark Bait.

[ooh haha.]

Last week, at one of my swim practices that I coached at, my favorite coach ever, gave me two tickets to the Sharks game on Monday. Clearly I readily accepted them because sometimes I like to pretend to be groupie. And yes, maybe I don't understand all the rules of hockey but I know enough.

So on Monday, little Shmackely and I headed to the Shark Tank (aka HP Pavillion) to watch our little Sharkies play the Ducks.

I anticipated a win but apparently the Sharks had a different agenda.

[They lost 3-5.]

But it was still super great, nonetheless.

Here's the thing I've noticed recently and that I very quickly was reminded of at the game:

There are quite a few words in the vocabulary of most people that are four letters long and I haven't heard in a looooong time.

Within 5 minutes of the game, the wonderful lady sitting next to me said a 'S' word approximately 8 times, in a row. And pretty loudly. And her husband followed that with a couple other choice words.

Let's just say I haven't heard those certain words in months, so I was a little shocked upon hearing them again.

And it was funny because the girl in front of us was/is literally addicted to social networking. We figured out more about what was going on in the game from watching her tweet/status update (yes, we're snoopers like that) than we did from actually watching the game.

During one of the breaks between periods, twitter/facebook addict + boyfriend decided to take some pictures on her phone. Which was beyond presh.

And then of course Jack and I decided to do the same, in a semi-mocking tone. (Oh, and not to leave you with a cliff-hanger, but her phone then died after their photoshoot so she had to use his phone to text her friend/tweet/facebook.... really?!)

Fishes.

Chipmunks.

Game highlights:

When the goalie decided to start swimming across the ice- priceless.

Everyone being on their smartypants phones. And playing 'Draw Something' along with the guy in front of us.

Getting really good at the The-Sharks-just-scored-a-goal cheer.

Binocular Boy next to Shmack (who then moved over a chair).

The fight that broke out. (it's not hockey without a fight, right?)

Finding a mysterious cell phone in my dad's car on the way home.

(And then getting to play detective.)

Game lowlights:

Not being able to cheer when the Ducks score.

Not winning a new phone.

Not winning two free tacos.

Not seeing Sharkie.

Not eating delicious looking nachos.

Not being able to do the fun cheer after we got so good at it.

Losing.

So I would say, it was a rather successful outing.

I love getting to watch the Sharks for free.

[Thank you, Nan!]

Giant Teddy Bears, Swimming & Chick-Fil-A.

This week was mightyyy busy. Which I've said a lot.

But seriously, this week was insane.

Monday I worked, and then was an assistant swim coach.

Tuesday I nannyed all day (with the grandma being there) and this pretty much sums up my feelings towards the day:

Wednesday I nannyed and then babysat.

Thursday I went to swim practice and then made a super special dinner (more on that later) and then went to a performance by the stake youth.

Friday I went to work, then almost immediately went to a swim meet (in the POURING rain) which was basically sitting there under a huge Stanford umbrella chatting with Nan, and then almost immediately after that, I babysat an adorbs baby. I picked him up at church (because the rest of his fam was going to the same performance) and then I drove him home, in the pouring rain and then I had to get him to go to sleep. Which was hard but not in the way that most babies are.

He would pull his pacifier out of his mouth but then he couldn't figure out how to get it back in so he would fuss but then when he saw me walk in the room to help him, he would just have a huge smile on his face. SO cute. :)

Once he did fall asleep though, I started reading National Geographic which is one of my faves. And I started reading a special edition on water. Which is seriously my favorite. AND on top of all that, I stumbled across an articled titled: Parting the Waters. Which is all about the Israeli/Palestinian/Jordanian conflict over the Jordan river. AND they mention an Israeli ecologist. So yeah, I guess you could kind of say that I loved it, more than a lot. :)

And then today involved cleaning the church this morning, going to the performance in the afternoon, hanging out/running errands in the afternoon and then going to another performance in the evening. And I got to be in the alumni number, which was exciting. :)

Anyway, back to my super exciting dinner that I made the other night.

It was this:

Homemade Chick-fil-A nuggets & fries.

It was pretty good. There were some bits that tasted JUST like Chick-a-fil and others.... not so much. But it was a good test.

[Recipe here.]

Also, watch this video. It'll truly make your heart smile. :)

Two Years from Hailey Haugen on Vimeo.

Ahh!

Just a little video to show you what my life involved today.

(Sorry it's sideways, I forgot that it does that when it gets put on my computer. Argh!

It's also supes quiet so I would recommend turning up your volume to hear how cute it is.)

(One of the funniest things he does is that whenever you say "Ready?', he'll immediately say 'Go!' (which he does in the video at about the :26 mark.) Adorbs.)

He was seriously in love with this horse. Hence the kisses. So presh.

Spud Pizza kind of day.

Work at 9 for 4 hours.

Which was fairly dreadful. Standing/running around the office. Assembling tax returns like a mad woman.

Stamping. Stapling. Sticking. Scanning. Stop.

I also slammed my knee into the cupboard thing at work and it hurt so bad. I felt like my knee was swelling while I was working for the next couple hours. But there is hardly a bruise. LAME.

And once I left, I was ravenously hungry. But I didn't want to eat anything besides Mexican food.

(I think that the lack of Mexican options in Jerusalem is finally catching up to me because I crave Mexican food daily now. And last week I had it approximately 6 times. (Not including my frequent snacking on chips & salsa.)

I came home to my friend, whom I'll call Brenden, hiding in this plastic fort he made:

We ripped our fire place out and so he's finishing putting in the hardwood floor. It's super presh.

I ate some lunch, watched The Amazing Race from last night and then went and picked up little Shmack from school.

Which was a tidbit traumatic. I tapped the car in front of me while we were waiting to go through the little loop. And I was freaking out because I thought we'd have to do the insurance swap and such but the was hardly any damage (just approximately two baby scratches on the bottom of her bumper and nothing all that new on my car) so she said it was fine and not a big deal because it would be a hassle to deal with insurance especially since there wasn't even damage. I hit her at like 1 mph so of course there was no real damage. It was a little bit nerve wracking though. (Thanks lady for being such a gem! I owe you one!)

I then drove Shmack home, and then headed right back to Homestead to be a swim coach.

Which in itself is hilarious because I've never coached before. haha but I was Nan's little assistant. And she was late to practice which was interesting for me. But yes, I got to understand how annoying little high schoolers are. Oh gosh.

It was extremely hard for them to understand this set:

4x:

4x50 on the :50- Free; swim.

1x100 -drill/swim (3right, 4 full, 3 left)

I think towards the end of it, they started to understand but... wow. (And I realize that most of my readers will have no idea what that means. hahaha. It's four 50's every 50 seconds, that you swim freestyle. Followed by a 100 freestyle drill/swim (drill for the first 25; swim for the next; etc.) with the drill being 3 on your right, 4 full and then 3 on your left. Not too complicated. But I understand they're youngin's.

Anyway, after practice, I came home and was starving. Something about being at the pool makes me hungry. haha

So following dinner, Shmack and I headed to Target because she needed black pants for Stake Play tomorrow. Target was successful; black pants, bought all the rest of the Cars macaroni & cheese, etc. We also found these little snacks that are called "Loaded Potato Skin bites" and so obviously we had to buy them and try them.

We cooked some up, and they taste freakishly similar to spud pizza. And you have no idea how much it made me crave spud pizza.

They look like cinnamon-sugar turtles. Aka cinnamon soldier turtles. :)

Only 28 more days (at the most) until I'm reunited with all my loves in Rexburg: Erin, Spud Pizza, delicious pad thai, jimmy john's, nielson's, fry sauce and school.

Rekindled Love: Swings.

About two months ago, I rekindled a former love of mine, trampolines.

Well, this week has made me bond with one of my other old friends:

Swings.

[source.]

I've always loved swings. In fact going to Porter Park in Rexburg and swinging on the swings is one of my favorite activities (and one of the reasons that I should continue living SO close to Porter).

Back in the day, I would swing standing up on the little kid swings. That was one of the tricks that Katie and I had.

Nothing is more fun and exciting that a good swing sesh.

(Which is why it makes me so sad when parks don't have swing sets/the take them down because of the 'danger'.)

Anywho, on Thursday, I had to hang out at the park with 4 year old twins because my mom stole their mom for official RS business. Anyway, they're old enough to play at the park by themselves without having someone following them around. I just needed to watch them. So I sat on the swings, and swung, while watching them. And it was perfect because the swingset was right in the middle of the playground so I could always see them.

And then I pushed them both for about half an hour. And my arms got pretty tired. haha

Then today, I was babysitting three little ninas and they have a wooden swing on their tree. And I swung on that while the children were riding bikes/jumping on the trampoline. And it was a beautiful day today so I was in the shade of the tree, enjoying a nice little breeze from the swing all while seeing three adorable girls playing in the sunshine.

Good day.

And I want to go swinging again.

(During both of these expeditions, I wanted to take some pictures but all I had was my phone. And I've been a little gentler with it recently because of it's injury. And I don't really think that the giant cracks and sand would've gone all that well together. So, thanks Google!)

I just met you. And this is crazy.

First of all, if you haven't seen this yet, watch it now.

(There is an adorable child in it so even though the length of it is rather... long, you'll be fine. Cause Gav is adorbs and funny. Plus, this is important.)

Secondly, I'm a little bit in love with this song/video at the moment.

The Biebs, Selena, etc. Great.

So, call me, maybe?

:)

Happy Tuesday!

Sad Day. :(

This morning, before I left for church, I was packing up my little purse and my phone was sitting on the counter and then next thing I knew, my phone was on the floor.

And I didn't really think much of it because my phone falls all the time and it's nooo problem.

Well, my phone landed face down so once I picked it up and looked at it, I realized there was a little bit of a problem. Aka it looks like this now:

Obviously a wonderful way to start my Sabbath. :(

And since this phone is just barely over a year old, the 1-year warranty is out the window (it's birthday was on the 23 of Feburary...)

So, I just get to either deal with it how it is, or start using an old phone we have laying around OR fork over approximately a lot of money and get a new one.

Obviously that last option is not happening. And it still works fine (except I feel like I get glass in my fingers sometimes...) so I'm going to keep using it.

So classy. :)

But yeahhhh, tomorrow I'm going to go and talk to some of my friends at AT&T and see what they can do for me. I'm not expecting much though.

Yay for having a super cracked screen for the next little while. I think this will help with my Bubble Buster/Facebook/texting addiction! That's a plus! :)

Dreams.

This morning, I woke up to my alarm which rudely interrupted a marvelous dream I was having about Jerusalem.

Such a sad, depressing feeling because there is nothing I would rather do right now than wake up in room 408 in the Jerusalem Center. It kind of took me a little while after I woke up to orient myself and realize that it was just a dream and that I actually wasn't in Jerusalem. Boo. :(

I think said dream might've been triggered by the fact that I was texting little Josh last night (which was his this morning) and Jerusalem was covered in white! So I was obviously just a smidge jealous and thinking about snow covered Dome of the Rock.

It's also ironic because I have a feeling that my Jerusalem dreamin' is very quickly going to turn into dreaming (or more like nightmaring) about 1099's, W-2's, K-1's, 1040's, the IRS/FTB, 8879's, etc.

Yep, it's Tax Time.

And I've spend the majority of my past two days assembling tax returns. Obviously a jolly good time.

In fact today I did tax stuff for almost 7 hours straight. Yikes.

Good thing about tax season: I'm busy as a little bee. Which equals money.

Bad thing about tax season: I'm busy as a little bee. Which makes me exhausted.

I suppose in this case, the positive outweighs the negative.

Get ready for tax talk from here on out. :/

p.s. I've heard from a couple of my loyal readers that they can't comment on my bloggy. is this happening for other people?!