Up to Date

Time for a quick update on me. I guess it's been awhile since I've posted anything about my personal goings on.

I'm less than four months away from my departure date! The reality set in when I realized that I would, originally, have been leaving this coming Tuesday, April 17th. I would definitely be a basket case right now if that were the date now. It is still on for August 9th and I'm stoked. I've been working on my memorization and I've been working hard to train physically so that basic isn't such a shock to my mind and body. I'm pretty sure, however, that no matter what I do to prepare I will not be completely prepared for basic. So I'm just going to continue doing what I'm doing. I ran my best 1.5 mile yesterday with a 13:56. I will need to knock down at least a minute off that by the time I get in. However, if I don't I'm right in the good range to where I will be able to pass the final test easily. Hopefully.

I'm still doing CrossFit. It is a kick in the pants and I love it. There are days I want to curl up in a fetal position and say "No more!" But I go again the next day. This has got to be a sign of some sort of mental illness to actually crave this kind of pain.

Kate, my sister, had a beautiful baby girl on March 16. Her name is Lundyn Taylor Chacon. She's a cutie patootie and I'm glad I will get to spend a few months with her before I go. I am sure I will post a few pictures of her on here. In fact, I might do a whole post dedicated just to her.

My novel is still coming along. It has taken a back burner to all the insane preparation for the Navy, but I still have it in the back of my mind all the time. I have been itching to write lately and I'm about 75% through the 2nd draft. After this, I am going to do some edits and I might have a class at the university rip it to shreds, and then I will try to get more serious about getting it published. The timing is just terrible. I will keep you all posted on how that goes. If you are on Facebook, you can "Like" my book's page here.

I will be dj'ing my third dance this weekend. It is, again, for my friends and all their kids who are taught at home. It is quite the experience and I've also been getting ready for that. I found a new way to express my love for music and that is by dj'ing.

Gigi is turning 5 in June! She got screened for kindergarten this week and scored a 53 out of 56 so she is very ready. I can't believe she's old enough for kindergarten! She's growing like a weed and stands up to my hips.

Morgan and Wyatt are also growing. They've matured just in the past few weeks since Lundyn was born. They are still active and a little unruly but boys will be boys. They turned 3 in January. 

It doesn't seem like it, but I have been really busy. Work and exercising and Navy and all that has sucked up all my time. In my spare time I'm hanging with family and friends, soaking it all in because I'm not sure when I will have any of these moments again in my life. There are days, still, that I wonder what I'm doing as far as the Navy goes, but I know this is what I want to do with my life. Something needed to change and the Lord provided this as a way for me to improve myself and the world around me. I'm excited for these great changes coming up in the next few months.

Attitude of Gratitude #13

Today, I'm grateful for:

A Good Book

It has been a long time since I've read a book that I couldn't put down and anticipated when I could pick it up again. Lauren Oliver's Before I Fall is a breath of fresh air. Yes, I thoroughly enjoyed T. Greenwood's Undressing the Moon and I really couldn't put that one down either. Before these two books, I was going through a drought it seemed. Yes, I liked the books I read (sorta), but they weren't anything that really captured me. So today I found myself picking up this book every chance I got. Just like the old days. I love that feeling of being so swept away by a book. I've read Lauren Oliver before. Her Delirium book is a fascinating read as well. She's a gifted writer, and I look forward to more from her. She just released a middle grade reader novel called Liesl and Po that I want to read. So here's me showing gratitude for a good book. Not just Oliver's book, but any good book that is out there and can take me away from reality for awhile. 

 

Gigi & The Bitty Boys

Such cute kids! Oh, how I love them, and Oh, how they love me. I have a lot of fun with them even though, sometimes, it is taxing to watch them. They are all just little balls of energy and I feel so old when I'm around them at times. Here they are on Halloween of this year, holding still for once.  Still not sure how we performed that miracle.

  

Random Texts

I got a couple random texts today. One was not-so-good and unwanted, the other was very welcome. I love getting random texts from people because it means they thought of me and wanted to catch up (usually). I heard from an old friend today and it was nice to text with him for a bit. Yay for random texts and the beauty of technology!

Attitude of Gratitude #4

(I'm already behind!!!)

Today (yesterday) I am (was) grateful for:

Mom's Homemade Mac & Cheese

My mom can cook! And one of my favorite meals she makes is homemade mac & cheese. I love it. Whenever she asks what she should make for supper that is one of the first things that I think of. She made it the night before and then I had it for lunch today (& yesterday). My mama treats me good.

Chill Friday Nights with the Parents & Gigi

So I still live with my parents and I'm 28 years old. That's about to change in a few months, but it has been really nice. I love chill nights with my family. I got a pizza for dinner from Papa Murphy's and even treated us to a cinnamon wheel dessert pizza that hit the spot exactly. We ate the pizza, watched Knight & Day starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz (a much better movie than I had anticipated), and then I watched some shows I had DVR'd for the week.

Whitney

This was one of the shows I had DVR'd for the week. If you haven't watched it yet, get to it. It is so funny! Mostly, it shows the quirks that go with being in relationships which everyone can relate to in some way. Whitney also makes fun of the differences between men and women all the time on her show. I have also watched her stand up routine (which you can tell has influenced a lot of the comedy in her show) called Money Shot and that is hilarious as well.

A Fairy Tale of Epic Proportions

I was telling a bed-time story to Gigi the other night. It got a little crazy. This is the closest I could come to remembering how it went.

Once upon a time there was a princess who lived in a cottage because she did not know she was a princess. There were three old women raising her. They were really fairies and they knew they were fairies and that the princess was a princess. They were hiding the princess who did not know she was a princess from the evil fairy, Maleficent.

The princess who did not know she was a princess went out to the woods to pick berries. It was her sixteenth birthday and the three fairies wanted to make her a surprise. So they sent her out to pick berries. She knew something was up but she went anyway.

While she was in the woods she met a handsome young man who was a prince who knew he was a prince but he did not know she was a princess.

In those very same woods, not too far away, was another cottage where another princess lived. She knew she was a princess, but she didn't want anyone to know where she was because her evil stepmother wanted her dead.

Maleficent's crow went out in search for the princess who did not know she was a princess. On his way, the crow saw the other princess who was hiding from her evil stepmother. He returned to the evil fairy's lair and told her what he saw. She called up the evil stepmother and told her where her runaway stepdaughter princess was.

The evil stepmother was mad that her stepdaughter was still alive. She disguised herself as an old crone and took a poisoned apple with her to the woods so she could finally get rid of the princess.

Tinker Bell, who was flying through the woods on her way back to Peter Pan and the Lost Boys, saw the old crone and knew what she was up to. So she went to get help from the seven dwarfs who were working in their mines.

Meanwhile, the princess, who did not know she was a princess, returned to the cottage where her aunts who were really fairies had made a cake and a beautiful gown for her birthday. She was excited. They told her, then, that she was a princess.

While the three fairies were taking their princess to the castle, they saw a carriage riding really fast through the woods. It was a strange thing because the carriage suddenly turned into a pumpkin and there was a girl who had been sitting inside it.

She told the three fairies and their princess that she was just coming home from the ball where she had danced with the prince but she had to leave before her fairy godmother's spell was over. She had left her glass slipper with the prince on accident, but she was secretly hoping that he would use it to find her again.

This reminded the other princess about the young man she had met in the woods and how much she wished to see him again.

While that was going on, the old crone got to the cottage before Tink and the seven dwarfs. The princess took a bite of the poisoned apple and died!

The fairies left the girl in the woods and took their princess to the castle where she was supposed to be safe. Maleficent was waiting though and the princess touched a spindle of a spinning wheel and fell fast asleep.

Both princesses would have to wait for true love's kiss to break the spells they were under!

Tinker Bell knew that the girl in the woods would be able to help her get the princes to the princesses. But the girl in the woods was in trouble too! She was locked away in her attic by her wicked stepmother because the prince was going around town having every woman try on the glass slipper.

Tink and the girl's friends, the mice, eventually got the girl out of the attic. The wicked stepmother's cat tried to stop them but Tink hit him with a baseball bat.

The girl tried on the slipper and it was a perfect fit! The prince had found his princess! Tink and the girl who was now a princess went to the castle where the young man who had met a different girl in the woods lived. They told him of his love's plight and he stormed off to the castle. It was now covered in thorns and briars which he broke through but then there was Maleficent who had changed herself into a dragon. He killed the dragon by throwing his sword into her heart. Then he climbed to the tower where the sleeping beauty was and a true love's kiss woke her from her spell.

Tink and the three good fairies led the others to the woods where a glass coffin sat. Seven dwarfs stood around it with tears in their eyes. They did not know where to find the princess's prince. But then he came on a white horse and kissed the princess. She woke up and the spell was broken.

All of the spells were broken and they all lived happily ever after!

What about Tinker Bell?

She went back to Never-Never Land and played with the Lost Boys and Peter Pan. She, too, met a fairy prince and fell in love and she lived happily ever after as well!

(I purposely didn't use the names of the princesses in the story because it was fun. It made a little more sense in oral form than in written.)

Cleaning with Gigi

It was my day off and what did I do? I cleaned house. Literally.

I started my day with Zumba which got me all energized to just keep going. And going. And going...I really don't know why I just kept going. I had a nice brunch then got to work cleaning the kitchen. Before I started cleaning I popped in my iPod and got the music going. I can clean, mow lawn, till gardens, scrape snow off sidewalks for forever when I have my iPod. Or at least until the battery runs out then I'm done. ha! Give me music to listen to and I can go for hours.

Cleaning the kitchen turned into mopping the floor in the kitchen which turned into getting on my hands and knees to scrubs some spots off the floor in the kitchen. That turned into vacuuming and dusting the front room which turned into organizing Gigi's room, putting all her dang toys away, and vacuuming that too. And I just kept going. I vacuumed the stairs, dusted and vacuumed downstairs, straightened my room up. By this time my mom and Gigi got home and I had browned some hamburger and grated some cheese for supper. While my mom made the taco soup, I vacuumed my room and Gigi had to come and "help."

Once I was done eating, I figured I had better go finish the job and tackle the task I had really wanted to do today. Clean my bathroom.

Gigi put up a fuss and so I let her come down and help me. I had to clean the pipes on my bathroom sink because the drain wasn't, well, draining very good. My cute little niece just kept saying "YUCK! That is yucky! You have a yucky sink!"

I will spare you the details.




The highlight of the day was that Gigi helped me clean my bathroom floor. I gave her Windex and some paper towels and she went to town with it.

And I didn't sit down to relax on my day off until 9:30PM. I love to clean actually. It helps me think. I must have something on my mind. I will get back to that when I have more information. For now, I shall keep you all in suspense.

Happy Birthday to Me! Pt. 2

Why I split this up into two posts, I haven't a clue. Just wanted to keep you in suspense.

The second half of my birthday went as follows:

• Wrote a blog about the first half of my birthday.
• Checked Facebook. Felt loved from all the birthday wishes on there.
• Read outside in the nice warm sunshine.
  
• Finished the book (a book review to come so stay tuned).
  
• Watched two episodes from the first season of Glee.
  
• Went to dinner with my parents, Gigi, Kate, Rico, and the twins at Texas Roadhouse. It was delicious!
• Ate some delicious coconut cream cake at Kate and Rico's house.
• Got Pinocchio on DVD, a set of Dominoes, and an armband for my iPod from the parents and a Barnes and Noble gift card from Kate and Rico (They know how to please me. Mike was a smart guy).
• Talked to one of my best friends, Jeremy Young, on the phone. He called to wish me a happy birthday. We reminisced a little about his conversion to the gospel. I really needed to hear the things he said so it was also an inspired phone call. Thanks, Jeremy!
• Got a date lined up for Friday.
  
• Checked my blog. Got more lovings and birthday wishes. Thanks, Tianna and Megan!
  
• Completed Part Two of the blog-post for my birthday happenings.
  

All in all it was a really great day full of relaxation, shopping, family, friends, and fun! Here is to another year of life and great things!

27th Year of Life Here I Am!

Mean Princess

Today my nephews and their awesome mommy came over for dinner. It was good, as always, to see them. Wyatt kept getting into the plants and pulling off leaves which is a big no-no. At one point, my Mom got mad at Wyatt then Gigi stood in front of him with a big crusty, scowl on her face and said this:

I am Gigi. I am the mean princess. Don't touch Mommy's plants!

Right after that she smiled all cute and walked away.

'Nough said!

Papa Made Me Sad

So I came home from work today and the first people I saw were my parents. No big deal, but usually I see Gigi first. This made me think that something was wrong. Either Gigi had gotten in trouble or she was playing downstairs or something. After I put my stuff down and talked to my mom for a minute I went in search for her.

Me: Where's Gigi?

Mom: She's here.

Gigi pops up around the corner in her pajamas and cute little pig-tails.

Gigi: (looking up at me with big, brown, puppy-dog eyes) Papa made me sad.

Me: (laughing) He did?

Mom: (carrying a bunch of Gigi's clothes to the washer) Pick up your stuff and bring them to me, Gigi, or I'll make you sad too.

Gigi: I don't make you sad, Mama, I make you happy. (After the fact I realized this didn't quite make sense but it was awesome when she said it.)


And later...

Me: (reading a book)

Gigi: Want to hide in this blanket with me?

Me: (shaking my head while reading)

Gigi: There's enough room in here for you.

Me: (shaking my head)

Gigi: See. I hide here and you hide there (spreading the blanket for me which is clearly not big enough for the two of us).

Me: I'm reading.

And just a few minutes later she's off the blanket thing and onto something else:

Gigi: Want to go to my bedroom? (This is something she always asks and something I hope she doesn't ever ask a boy in any time in the future.)

Me: (closed my book, having given up on reading with Gigi around) Not really. What's in your bedroom?

Gigi: (thinking about it seriously) Mmmmm...some clothes, toys, and beds.

Me: There's beds in your bedroom.

Gigi: Just my bed. Your bed is downstairs.

Me: Oh. I had no idea. (I should probably cool the smart alecky business with the two year old but I can't help it.)

That was a glimpse into my night with Gigi. Good times for all! She went to bed really nicely tonight which means she's been trained well. Some nights aren't as easy.

One of the Best Sounds in the World

Tonight I was warming up my supper while my mom was putting Gigi to sleep. From the kitchen I could hear them. The nightly ritual is as follows: a book or two or three or four, prayers, and then a couple songs.

One of Gigi's favorites is "Itsy Bitsy Spider" mostly because of the part where the rain washes the spider out of the water spout. Tonight I could hear her singing that song and being all dramatic during that part and I loved it. It put a smile on my face.

I'm going to have to record her singing sometime soon so that it can be shared with the world!

Bitsy Boodle

Don't ask why my family has to give weird nicknames to people. It's just a weird and endearing (sometimes) quirk.

Giselle's nicknames are as follows:

Gigi (obviously)
Bitsy Boodle
Little Monster
Gigi Bottoms

I'm sure there will be more but that is a lot of nicknames for a two and a half year old.

Tonight I was playing with Gigi. At one point I had her wrapped up in a blanket and I was twirling her around while she was cocooned in said blanket. It was fun but I was worried that I would accidentally let go of the blanket and she'd go flying out. That would not be good.

Another moment tonight made me laugh pretty hard. Gigi likes to make beds out of whatever she can find: pillows, blankets, cushions, etc. Tonight I was sprawled out on the floor after twirling Gigi (it's hard work!) and she lay down next to me, putting her head on a pillow. I did not have a pillow but I was just catching my breath.

Gigi: You don't have a pillow! (She said this as if it were the greatest catastrophe since...MC Hammer pants.)

Me: I don't. I'm okay though.

Gigi: I'll get you a pillow.

Me: Okay. (I think I may have closed my eyes.)

It got quiet and then I heard the Little Monster approaching.

Gigi: Here's your PILLOW! (I opened my eyes to see Gigi standing above me with the pillow raised high above her head and then it came crashing down onto my face. Not only did she throw the pillow at me but she proceeded to press it into my face, giggling the whole time. I was laughing too.)

I just realized that all of that could be misconstrued as Gigi having killer instincts. Literally. But she was just being funny.

That and this next part were the best moments of tonight.

Gigi loves, loves, loves to sneak up on people and scare them with a big RARRRRR! All you have to do is start whispering to her all conspiratorially and say "Let's sneak up on Mom!" and she's all for it.

So we did. We sneaked up on my mom while she was cooking dinner. It was awesome. One of the sad things about this is that I got as much thrill out of it as Gigi did (possibly). The other sad part is that my parents have become desensitized to being sneaked up on and scared taking most of the fun out of it.

Oh! Another part that was fun:

I buried Gigi in pillows and had her wait til I said "Where's Gigi?" at which point she was supposed to bust out of her downy bonds and scare my parents. It failed miserably because my dad said the magic words before I did.

Oh well. There's always next time.

Arguing with a 2 Year Old

I find myself arguing with Gigi more and more. Mostly it's because it's fun and she actually puts up a fight. So there's the entertainment value. And also she's going to need to be able to stand up for herself in this family. So here are some of the latest arguments I've had with my niece:

(I cleaned my disaster of a room today. She comes down to my room with a popsicle.)

Me: I don't want you to have that in here, Gigi. I just cleaned.

Gigi: (gives me her big doe-eyed stare as if I'm speaking Russian)

Me: Seriously. Finish it and come back. (I knew she wanted to get on my bed which is why I was putting up a fight. Preventive measures.)

Gigi: But I want to. (That's usually her answer to everything.)

Me: But this is my room.

Gigi: This isn't your room!

Me: Umm...Yeah it is.

Gigi: No it's not. This is Papa's room.

Me: I don't think so.

So I dropped that argument and only a few minutes later we had this one:

Gigi: Your room is stinky.

Me: My room's not stinky.

Gigi: *sniffs* Yeah it is.

Me: You mean it smells good because I just cleaned and dusted and everything?

Gigi: No it's stinky.

Me: You're stinky.

Gigi: No I not!

Me: Yeah you are. I can smell you from here. (She really wasn't stinky. Part of the fun about arguments with Gigi is that she and I have the same sense of humor. Sad to think that I have the same humor as a 2 year old. Oh well.)

I won that one because she gave up first. HA!

The other day she pointed to an obviously purple item (I can't remember what it was. All I know is it was purple.)

Gigi: I like that blue!

Me: That's purple, Gigi.

Gigi: No it's not. It's blue.

Me: I'll compromise (Yes, I use big words with her. Call me crazy. She doesn't know what I'm talking about.), it's purple-blue.

Gigi: That's not purple. It's blue.

Me: Ok. It's blue.

Sometimes I just give up because I realize how silly it is to argue with a 2-year old.

Gigi: I'm not two! I'm two and a half!

I think I should top arguing with her but...it's too much fun. Besides, I think it's good for her.

Is it a Temple or a Castle?

I couldn't resist posting this. While I was typing up my last book review Gigi came in my room and looked at my pictures on the wall. Here's how it went:

Gigi: (pointing at my calendar which is currently on a picture of the Easter Island Moai Quarry) I don't like those rocks.

Me: Why not?

Gigi: Because they're mean.

And a few minutes later...

Gigi: (Pointing at a picture of the Nauvoo Temple) I like that castle!

Me: (seeing a teaching moment) That's a temple, Gigi.

Gigi: No, it's a castle!

Me: No, it's a temple.

Gigi: NO! IT'S A CASTLE!

Me: It is?

Gigi: Yeah.

Me: Ok.

That'll teach me for trying to argue with a two and a half year old.