you would prosper

Back in Ms. Bestor's 10th grade English class, I did a presentation on fortune cookies. I researched the history, superstitions, and even learned how to make them. Since then, you could say I take them very seriously.

A few months back a drug rep brought our office in some Chinese food for lunch. I picked my fortune cookie at the end of my meal. The following was revealed to me:

I immediately taped this golden nugget up at my desk at work. I read it's prophecy daily. Conveniently enough I would be applying for the Nursing program at UVU about a month later - so I could really put this to the test soon enough.

I turned in my nursing application on April 10th. The application period didn't end until May 15th, and additionally it would take another month after that for any results. If anything was going to try my impatience and make me stronger, this was going to be it.

For the first month and a half of waiting I got through unscathed. But by the beginning of June I had become somewhat of a nervous wreck. Each morning would play out the same way. I would wake up feeling nauseous and the mail would be the first thing I thought. I would feel this way until about 10:30 am when I would call my family and see if the mail had come. When it hadn't, I returned to normal and proceeded okay through the rest of my day.

As you might be able to tell, this became quite exhausting. But one morning I called at my usual time and for the first time said, "Mom, just tell me already that it's not there." I was usually excited and hopeful, but that morning told myself it wasn't there. My mom replied, "There is something here. It's an envelope and it's heavy."

Of course I forced my mom to leave the house immediately and bring this to me at work. It was the longest 15 minutes. She finally arrived and I stepped outside in the hall just in case I had an emotional outburst. The patients can't see that. My shaking fingers finally opened the envelope and this is what I saw:

So I know that I have already publicized this to pretty much everyone, but I thought I should post about one of the greatest things that's happened to me as of late. Besides, I count this as my journal.

I start at the end of next month. I'm pretty much terrified and excited. I'll keep you all updated about what goes down.

quilt queen

So it's the first summer in about three years that I haven't taken classes. Believe me, it's a welcome change. Needless to say I have had a bit more extra time on my hands to pursue some new hobbies.

About two months ago Meg kept on trying to get me to start on a craft. She had started sewing some items, so I thought I would try it as well. Now, I have sewn a number of items in my 23 years, but I have never taken on a big project. I went to Hobby Lobby one night and picked out some fabric - not knowing just what I was getting myself into. Meg showed me a blog that featured a cool way of piecing fabric (http://www.ohfransson.com/oh_fransson/2008/05/did-you-see-me.html). It's called the crazy nine patch quilt. Take a look for yourself for a brief tutorial.

Anyway, what should have been a nice project that someone might take their time and spend months doing turned into an obsession of sorts. I started sewing like a mad woman. The square pictured above was one of about sixty that I made. I decided I was going to put together a quilt that would fit my queen-size bed.

After I was done making the squares and adding brown borders between each, I finally had the top ready. My good friend and mentor at work, Val, is a domestic genius. I took my quilt to her for the binding. She did what was called "stippling", as pictured above. She did such a beautiful job.

I had brown fabric for the back and then hand-stitched brown for the edges.

And here you see the final product that now rests on my bed. I am quite satisfied with myself.

woman of steel

On Saturday May 16, Nan, my mom, and I participated in American Fork's Woman of Steel Triathlon. I've been preparing/dreading/working for it since January.

Apparently this thing was a big deal. There were about 600 women participating. Outside the American Fork Rec Center they had set up rows and rows of bike racks. Every foot or so they had a name taped to it signifying where you were to put your bike and all your other gear. This was called the Transition Area. Anything you needed for the swim, bike, or run were kept here.

We arrived at 6:30 am to the bustling Rec Center where hundreds of bikes where dangling by racks. I couldn't help but feel nauseated thinking about the impending race. All I could think about was the swim. I kept telling myself if I could just get through the swim, I'd be home-free. We made final preparations such as the staff writing your race number (38) on your arm and your age (23) on your leg. At 8 am everyone headed poolside for the National Anthem.

THE SWIM - It was held in a mere pool, but I was still pretty terrified because, let's be honest, swimming has never been my strong suit. 300 meters doesn't sound like a whole lot, but people, is it. Think of the long length of a pool - and then swimming six laps of that non-stop.

All participants were given a hot pink cap. You didn't have to wear it, but I did because I figured I would disappear into the sea of pink and no one would notice the girl who couldn't swim.

A new swimmer would enter the pool every 12 seconds until every one had gone. As the line grew shorter, I grew less nervous. I realized that a lot of people couldn't swim like me, and that I would be okay. I finally just got out there and basically faked it. My swim took me 9:54. I am pretty proud of that considering I've been convinced the last few months that I would drown.

THE BIKE - When you hop out of the pool, you run back to the transition area and throw on your socks, shoes, helmet, and mount your bike. The bike loop left the Rec Center and took you up into Highland. At the start of the loop, there are these two massive hills (they don't look as such by car, but trust me). My thighs were burning while biking up these hills. But what goes up, must come down. You then made your way to the Alpine Highway which was a nice down hill ride.

The loop obviously returns to the Rec Center, where you do it one more time. The thought of biking those hills again was daunting, but I was excited to get it over with. After loop number two, you've completed 12.4 miles. My bike time was 50:27.

This is Nan completing a bike loop. Her and I rented these sweet road bikes. They're much faster than mountain bikes.

THE RUN - After the biking I quickly returned my bike to the transition racks and threw on my running shoes. My legs felt like noodles. It was a weird sensation trying to run when your legs feel like that.

The running loop followed the bike loop for the most part. We had to run up those hills I mentioned before in the bike loop. Not fun. But the loop cut off earlier than the bike loop and set back toward the Rec Center. The run consisted of three miles. During the run I was so ready to be done and the finish line couldn't have come any sooner. Once back the the Rec Center, they had the red finish line set up and I proudly ran on through. What a relief. My run time was 28:07.

You can barely see me, but there I am running through the finish line.

Once at the finish line, the booths were full of oranges, grapes, apples, cookies, water, chips, salsa - every thing you need to make a full recovery. This was all very welcome.

This is my cool road bike. She got me thru the tough times.

And here is Nan again being her exhibisionist self again. As you can see, she loved her skin-tight TRI shorts.

And my rockin' mom. She encountered a few minor setbacks when we got to the race that morning. As we were walking our bikes on the sidewalks of AF, she walked her bike through a patch of those sticker pokey things. As she gingerly pulled them out, one let out a burst of air. Fortunately there was an awesome dude there you changed out both of her tubes free of charge. Nice guy. She also forgot her race numbers at home. Bummer. But after these trials, she did awesome out there.

Our finishing times (including transtion times) were as follows:

Me - 1:33

Nan - 1:39

Daunetta -1:53

This was a pretty awesome experience. I was dirt tired after, but it was totally worth it. You all can refer to me as a triathlete from now on.

hannah's homecoming

Hannah finally came home on Friday after enjoying her 7 week stay at the hospital.

My bro Bran feeding her in the luxury of the home.

And what we've all been waiting for -- I finally got to hold her! What a good baby. She just kept staring at me. She couldn't believe how beautiful her aunt was.

pictures for chad

Brief Explanation: There is no rhyme or reason to this post except for the sole purpose of sending pictures to Chad via email. I have found that his missionary email address won't let you attach pictures, unless injected directly into the body of the letter. This usually only works for me when I have pictures directly from the internet. I don't know if this makes sense to you all, but trust me. I have been very negligent lately in sending him pics, so there are few that have piled up. I'll add some captions for your viewing pleasure...

Little Hannah

And her foot.

Easter Supper at the Larsen home.

I worked on this two-layer bunny cake all day. Awesome, huh?

Kim and her Easter basket.

Me and my Easter basket. And my new D-Will Jazz Jersey.

Mountain biking in Corner Canyon this weekend.

Hannah and Bran.

Mom and me going down Provo Canyon.

Our idiot cat Moses. He seriously got his head stuck in his cat food bag.

Tara and me outside the Washington DC Temple.

Holding the Washington Monument.

ronnie brewer

I'm a Jazz fan. I think I've made that perfectly clear.

So when I got a text message from the Utah Jazz (yes, I'm a text subscriber) saying that Ronnie Brewer would be at a new housing development in Herriman, I knew I had to be there.

It also didn't hurt that the first 25 people there would get two free tickets to an upcoming Jazz game.

So on Friday March 27, Tara, Mele, and I headed up and of course won free tickets. True fans like us deserve them.

We got to meet Ronnie, get his autograph, and as you see above, take our picture with him. He was very nice.

All in all, it was a great way to spend a Friday afternoon.

items of business

I have much to tell you, my blog friends. I will start with the most important.

While on vacation in DC last week (watch for upcoming post), I received a call from my mother informing me that my 32-week-along sister-in-law, Stacey, had a dangerous pregnancy condition called preeclampsia. They told her she would need to deliver in 48 hours.

Long story short, Hannah Leigh Larsen arrived on March 20, weighing 3 lbs 1 oz. She was 17 inches long! Tall baby.

I just barely got to see her for the first time on Wednesday. She was tanning under the bili lights. She just loves to chill and stretch out her long legs over her body-encasing doughnut. She also sounds like a kitten when she cries. You know I love it.

She only had to be on C PAP (breather thing up there) for 12 hours - which is awesome.

Exhausted.

Tanning under the bili's.


Next item: Blown out tire fiasco!

Okay, so I was aware that I hadn't put new tires on the car for, mmm, maybe five years. So what? my young girl mind thought. Maintenance is for boys. Namely my dad. So it shouldn't have been a shock when this happened Wednesday on my way to Statistics.

I haven't been to Stats for the last 4 class periods. I'm behind. I was very eager to get there on Wednesday to catch up and turn in my homework. While driving on Interstate 15, I was approaching the 800 North exit in Orem. All of a sudden my car just started making weird noises and driving uneven. I knew my luck had finally run out.

I pulled to the side and dialed my dad to come rescue me. My parents were there within minutes. When my dad examined the situation and also my remaining three tires, he looked at me with a sigh and said, "When we're done, head directly to Big O Tires." Apparently you could see the cording on my other tires. So they were in bad shape too. Who knew?

My mom scolding me for not being more assertive in my car's life.

So $480 dollars later (I also needed an alignment and one other thing I don't understand) and my tax-refund all but depleted, I got my car back in tip-top shape.


Next item: Wendover!

It's been an ongoing joke among the friends that one night we're just going to take the FUN BUS to Wendover and gamble the night away. Well, one fateful Friday night, Nan and Joe talked me into just that. We met the Fun Bus here at the Buenavista Market in shady West Valley. I know.

Here is the fun bus, already transporting some very enthusiastic patrons.

Nan and me. Excited.

Joe and Ryan. Oh and Joe's rotten friend behind him.

Once aboard, an old lady gets this party started! We played BINGO, played lotto scratch cards, and enjoyed some beverages. We were also given a coupon book with the following: free buffet, five dollars cash back, and free cocktails (gave that one away).

The Friday night seafood buffet was $24.99. My Fun Bus ticket was $18. You do the math. I earned money on this trip.

Nan, Joe, and Ryan trying their luck at the Roulette Table. I didn't gamble my money, but I sure helped Ryan gamble his. It's much more fun that way.

Nan kept wasting away her final dollars in dumb slot machines, so I had to show her how it was done. I put in a dollar to the 5 cent slot machines. I went away with $1.45. I know when to quit.

So, all in all, I spent $12.55 (because I got 5 bucks back). The Fun Bus picked us back up at 3:45 am, and I finally rested my head on my pillow at 6 am. Worth it.

There you have it. I am sorry for the long post, but I just had so much on my mind!