Julie's Visit, Cherry Blossoms, and Birthday Fun

It's almost been a month since I posted last...yowsers! I've basically been basking in the joy of visitors (esp. family), reading great books, the beautiful spring weather, and being one year older. Here's what I've been up to lately:

Julie came to visit for her spring break and it was so much fun. I love my sister so much. Don't get me wrong, I love my brothers and all, but there is nothing like a sister and best friend. We did all kinds of things here in DC: The Supreme Court, Library of Congress, Capitol Visitors' Center, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Washington monuments, Georgetown, etc. We also took a weekend trip up to New York City to see Mary Poppins, which we loved. It's adorable. We also attempted to win "Wicked" tickets but didn't win the raffle. We ate some amazing food (thanks to Ben's incredible recommendations), saw the Manhattan temple, went to the MET, did some shopping, and reminisced about the night we slept in Times Square 6 years ago during that big blackout. It was so much fun and I can't even express how much I love Julie. As my brothers say, Julie's "one solid chick," and I would have to whole-heartedly agree.

Two weeks after Jules left Doug, Heather, Evan, and Audrey came into town. They came during the peak blooming of the Cherry Blossoms which we loved! We did the whole touristy thing: saw monuments, went to the Air and Space Museum (Evan was literally in heaven, I've never seen him so happy!), saw planes take off and land at Gravely Point near the Regan Airport, went swimming, and much more. It was so fun to have them here, I've still having Evan and Audrey withdrawls!

Last Friday I turned 26! I had a really fun day thanks to my amazing friends. Ben and Laney planned the evening; a bunch of friends and I went to a Nationals game and then had cake and ice cream after. Laney made a delicious cake from scratch that was a huge hit. I also had a lot of fun blowing out the candles...haha, as evidenced in this picture. What a great action shot, huh!?

The detective in me...

I've recently re-discovered the detective in me and the yearning to become as cool as Sydney Bristow from Alias, here's why: we've discovered there is a high profile diplomat or maybe someone on Obama's cabinet on my street that gets 24 hour secret service type surveillance! A few months ago (we think around January 20th sometime, interestingly enough) Laney, Mandy (roommates), and I noticed a black SUV with two guys in suits with earpieces parked on our street quite often. Laney noticed them at 5 am when she goes to the gym, I noticed them getting home late at night, etc. We thought...hm...who are they and who are they watching? They always park at different spots and sides of the street so we didn't really know specifically which house(s) they were watching, but our curiousity kept us watching them. I visited the secret service website to find out who is entitled to 24-hour surveillance. Here's what I found out:

Today, the Secret Service is authorized by law to protect:

• The president, the vice president, (or other individuals next in order of succession to the Office of the President), the president-elect and vice president-elect


• The immediate families of the above individuals


• Former presidents and their spouses for their lifetimes, except when the spouse remarries. In 1997, Congressional legislation became effective limiting Secret Service protection to former presidents for a period of not more than 10 years from the date the former president leaves office
  
• Children of former presidents until age 16


• Visiting heads of foreign states or governments and their spouses traveling with them, other distinguished foreign visitors to the United States, and official representatives of the United States performing special missions abroad
  
• Major presidential and vice presidential candidates, and their spouses within 120 days of a general presidential election


• Other individuals as designated per Executive Order of the President
  
• National Special Security Events, when designated as such by the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security
  

Kind of exciting wondering if any of those people lived on my street, huh!? So one night last week Julie (sister), Kim (cousin), Ben (significant other), and I were playing tennis at the park right by my house and I noticed the SUV parked in the parking lot (it was about 9pm). I'm freaking out, wondering if its someone in the park or something and in the meantime Ben decides we should just go up to them and ask them who they are and what they're doing. Here are the answers we got: 1. They are not secret service, but are "of the like" 2. They do 24 hour surveillance of someone on my street 3. The person they are watching is in neither House nor Senate 4. We "shouldn't be alarmed."

The next development: last Monday for FHE we went door to door on behalf of the "Save the Aurora Hills Library" campaign to get petition signatures. The county is doing budget cuts and wants to cut our library hours in half so some members of the church organized this campaign. We were encouraged to go on our streets to get to know our neighbors and I thought, PERFECT! Laney and I had narrowed it down to a few houses on this one side of the street and so I realized this would be the perfect opportunity to go up to those doors, find out who lives there, and get their name and signature on our petition! We had considered taking around cookies, casually playing the "we're new in the neighborhood" card, pretending to be JW's, selling girl scout cookies, etc. to try to go find out who it is, but never did anything until now. So as we (Jane, Ashley, and I) go up the the first of the suspected houses, I see the black SUV parked down the street start to pull out. As we were at the door they drove by really slowly and were totally watching us. The circled around and went back to their parking spot as we left the house and went on to the next houses. BAM...knew what house they're watching. A nice lady answered the door and we explained what we were doing. She said her husband wasn't home and that they were from out of town and that the owners of the house wouldn't be back until later that evening...a little fishy if you ask me. Why would it matter if her husband is home if they are from out of town? There were to cars from Pennsylvania parked in the driveway that I had noticed in the past...also fishy. So we continued down the street getting signatures and we had the urge to ask people about who lived in that house, but didn't do it. So needless to say, we now know what house they're watching, but still don't know who it is. We'll get to the bottom of this! Actually, maybe we shouldn't because we might end up dead. Kidding. Go US Secret Service (and anyone "of the like")!

Stacey and Clinton wannabes

So last weekend Laney and I had a fun little adventure. One of the many advantages of living in a big city is endless shopping. Growing up in Merced, CA we were seriously shopping deprived. The best that Merced Mall had to offer was JCPenny and Mervyns, literally. I think now its moving up a bit, but still no Gap, unbelievable. No longer do I have to drive 40 minutes to Modesto for a Gap and an hour for a Nordstrom or Banana. So one of our roommates said she wanted to dedicate $1,000 to her wardrobe and she wanted Laney and my help, so we for sure jumped on the challenge. Laney knows all the staples you need in your closet and she's got way better fasion sense, I was mostly there for the practical opinion (I definitely have Karen Fife and Beth Callister genes in me). We spent almost 3 hours at H&M and had her try on pretty much everything in the store. We talked Em into some skinny jeans (both denim and grey, I was really proud of her, they looked amazing on her), a few cute cardigans, and some other shirts. Needless to say, it was a very successful trip and thanks to the cheap prices at H&M, she still has about 700 bucks to go! Em had a hot date that night and man did she look good. I see many more good times in the future. Thanks Stacey and Clinton. I really want to be on that show and get $5,000 for shopping. Yowsers!

Church Basketball and the Boot Scootin' Boogie

So I've played sports all of my life and have never gotten a serious injury. I've never had any major surgeries or anything thats kept me down...until church basketball last Saturday. So to take this injury back a little further, over Christmas I was playing indoor soccer with my cousins and totally rolled my ankle really bad. I did the whole RICE stuff (rest, ice, compression, elevation) and it was pretty much almost better, and in the past couple of weeks I've played tennis and soccer on it, so I "thought" it was fine - first mistake. Then Saturday at our church basketball game I was trying SO hard to guard this girl (our team is pretty intense and since basketball is NOT my forte, I have to try really hard) she kind of pushed me and I heard a POP and rolled the same ankle the exact same way, and this time its much worse. It swelled so bad it was seriously as big as a golf ball! The team kept playing but we lost the game because we had almost no subs...bummer. Now I'm sporting a huge cankle (calf-ankle, or where there's no distinction between your calf and ankle). Here's some photos for your enjoyment:

Sick huh? What happened to the innocent days of church basketball in Merced 1st ward when the scores were something like 16-12? I liked those church bball days! So anyways, on with the story (I iced it and elevated it and got the swelling to go down a little bit). Saturday night we had a ward V-day activity at the church and after the games we had a dance and sometimes I just can't resist - second mistake. So, despite my hurt ankle, I decided to jam hard with Kim to some footloose, dancing queen, and some other singing group hits, do the limbo competition, and shake it to some Beyonce. Then the Boot Scootin' Boogie starts and I mean come on, who can't resist a little line dancing? So I proceed to get my cowgirl on and jump around doing the whole thing and all of a sudden my ankle is killing and it had swelled up even more! My dad informed me that I shouldn't have done the Boot Scootin' Boogie, because it gets you every time...definitely words of wisdom. I've got one word for me and my decisions: GENIOUS! So as a result, I'm sitting here at work with my ankle wrapped and my leg elevated. I'm a total gimp and everyone is having a heyday with it! But it actually is really funny so I'm laughing to!

I've entered the blogging world...finally!

Hi friends! So after debating the pros and cons of blogging, considering what I'd write on here, thinking of a name, etc., etc., I've takent he plunge and finally started a blog. I moved to Washington DC about 5 months ago and have had non stop adventures and fun and figure some of you may want to hear about them. Here's been some of the highlights since I moved here:

1. Driving accross the country with my best friend in all the world, Laney Zundel. We packed her little Honda Civic to the BRIM...literally, turned on the GPS and put in our address in Arlington, and headed out. We knew we packed too much stuff when the car struggled up Parley's Canyon on the 1-80 right outside of Salt Lake...which isn't even that much of a climb. Luckily Nebraska is the flattest state in the entire world so we were okay then. We stopped in Chicago to visit my brother Doug and his family, at the Amish colonies in Intercourse, PA, and the church history sites in Kirtland, Ohio so it was a lot of fun.






2. Moving into a beautiful house with amazing roommates. I feel SO lucky to live where I do with the gals that I do. Nevermind that the rent is twice as much as I ever payed in Provo, but it's all part of living in a metropolitan area, right? "It's all part of the experience." We even have a back yard and fish pond, so I guess what more could you ask for?

3. Finding a job! I searched hard for a few weeks and found a job doing worksite health promotion with the US Marshals service. I'll admit...I had no idea what the US Marshals did when I first got hired here, I just recall Tommy Lee Jones and his US Marshal team chasing after Harrison Ford in the movie "The Fugitive," so its been fun learning about how the US Department of Justice works. I'm the health and fitness program manager here, so basically I keep these US Marshal deputies in shape so they can catch fugitives and keep our nation safe. Cool job huh!? The best part is that I work about 1.2 miles from my house, so I can ride my bike which makes my commute about 5 minutes.

4. Experiencing East Coast beaches. Laney and I took a weekend trip to Rehobeth Beach, Delaware before we got jobs and let me tell you, West Coast beaches and just downright better. No offense to east coasters, but California beaches are where its at...and I'll just leave it at that. We were too poor to get a hotel so we slept in the car!! Talk about beach bums...haha...but it was a lot of fun. Here's some photos...ps, don't you love the metal detector guy in the background...whats a good beach without people with metal detectors trying to find stuff...I guess they look for rings or money or whatever...I guess that's a universal trait of beaches!

5. Visiting Lindsay Lansing's lake house in North Carolina. It was gorgeous and so much fun. The water was SO freezing but we couldn't pass up the opportunity to go boating, even if it was 50 degrees outside! Luckily afterwards we got in her parent's sauna shower...quite possibly one of the most amazing experiences ever. I want one of those in my house. We got to know Tim Whiting on this trip and I think he is one of the funnest people I know.
6. Experiencing an East Coast fall. It was honestly one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. The leaves were gorgeous! I was literally in heaven for the few weeks that the leaves were changing. Someone at church in a prayer thanked God for "nature's fireworks"...we think he was refering to the leaves and I would have to second that, they are one of the most beautiful creations.

















7. Going to Chicago for Thanksgiving to see Doug, Heather, Evan, and Audrey. It was a ton of fun, we just packed it in: the Turkey Trot, Chicago History Museum, chicago style pizza, laser hair removal (my bro is a dermatologist, love it!) shopping, Thanksgiving dinner at my cousin's house (Brent and Melissa Callister), and the highlight...winning $25 front row tickets to Wicked. I loved every minute of this trip! and I'm in love with Chicago.




8. Christmas in DC! Laney and I packed almost every night and weekend with fun Christmas stuff like the tree lighting at the whitehouse, the tree at the capitol, a Scottish christmas festival, the botanical gardens, etc. We hosted a Christmas sugar cookie party and lots more. It was great.

9. New York City! I went there the weekend before Christmas with some friends to experience NYC at Christmas time and just about froze. I don't know how people can live there, its ridiculously cold. Nonetheless, had a lot of fun seeing Rockefeller Plaza, Phantom of the Opera, Macys, Times Square, etc. I also revisited the place where my family and I slept on the sidewalk during the blackout of 2003. We were picking Dan up from his mission when that blackout happened so we had to sleep on the sidewalk in Times Square...hilarious.

10. The Inauguration! It was absolutely nuts out here, but really fun. I went to the swearing in ceremony, didn't have tickets, but watched it on a big screen by the Washington Monument. Everyone was really excited and it was fun to experience this piece of history. The highlight that night was going to the Michigan Ball with some friends, and a really cute boy! The food was amazing, the dancing was so fun, it was definitely a night to remember!




11. Going to Portland, Oregon last week for my friend Ceci's wedding. The wedding was beautiful and she was glowing, it was great. It was also fun to see my parents who are serving as the medical directors for the missions in Oregon, Washington, Parts of Canada, and Alaska. They're doing such a good job and I'm so proud of their missionary efforts. I have the best parents in the world!


Ok well thats the end of this marathon post! Life is great. Sorry for the amateurishness of this post...I'll hopefully get more blogging-savy.