Tender Mercy Tuesday - 51st Edition

Well m'dears. The fact that I haven't posted in a week should be a testament to how busy I really have been in the past week. Since last Tuesday I have:

• gotten my hair done - it looks fantastic! I'm in love with it.
• Played volleyball
• Hung out with Monkey Man countless times.
• Made pumpkin bread and white chocolate popcorn as gifts.
• Done my visiting teaching.
• Collected sub-for-Santa gifts from people in my ward
• Sung in my ward's Christmas program
• Hung out with Truit + Husband. They met Monkey Man. It was good times.
• Went to temple square...again. :o)
• Went to a wedding reception
• Caught the bouquet without trying. (seriously. It fell into my hands. No jumping required for this girl!)
• Had roommate Christmas
• Have my bags 75% packed (checked bag is 99% packed, carry-on and personal item are almost done)
• Checked into my departing flight :o)
• Taught several ballet classes
• Went to they gym and worked out with my trainer - twice!
• Worked on my day off. :(

It's been a very busy past seven days. I still have a few things to take care of this afternoon/evening. But once my ballet classes are taught I should be go to go and then I'll get to hang out with Monkey Man all night and have Christmas with him. :o) I'm excited. I'm also sad to be leaving him for so long. Thankfully there is plenty of technology to help us stay in contact for the 9 days I'll be gone.

This is not the point of the post  - the main point is to tell you about the most wonderful tender mercy I had this past week.

Life has obviously been really, really busy for me and I've been very stressed - especially the past couple of days. However, I have had times when the spirit of Christmas has been so strong and has blessed my life and reminded me why I do what I do at this time of year.

I've had the wonderful opportunity to help organize a sub-for-Santa for a couple of families in the home stake that feeds into our single's ward. It has been a wonderful experience to see people from my ward step it up and shower these families with generosity. These families that weren't going to have any kind of Christmas are now going to have a wonderful Christmas filled with love and laughter. There are so many wonderful people in the world and I feel so blessed to be able to know so many of them.

Merry Christmas everyone!

and then comes a flying wrench

You know how things are going well, or at least semi-well and you think you have life figured out and then WHAM! out of nowhere a wrench flies in to mess with your head, plans and life.

A flying wrench came yesterday by the name of Blindman2. You might remember him from WAY BACK when we went on a first date set up by Truit and her hubby.

Well, last night Truit and her hubby hosted a fondue dinner night. It was me, a mutual girlfriend of Truit and me and then Blindman2. Blindman2 had a really good excuse for not calling me...but there's still the fact that he didn't call me (that I'm not going to go into because it's long. it's valid though. completely valid). Anyways, we had a wonderful evening. he and I ended up next to each other all night. We ate good food, played Risk and 5 Crowns. We played footsies under the table - very flirty like and he kept my toes warm. We touched elbows, caught each other's eye and flirted verbally all night long. He walked me to my car at the end of the night and gave me a hug and promised to call this time. We'll see if he follows through or not.

Here's the thing - he's cuter than Percy when it comes to looks. He's taller, and nerdier. He's way more my "type" and fun to be with. Percy is fun too...don't get me wrong, but the only reason I find him attractive is becasue of his personality and how well we get a long. If I was looking at a book of pictures of Percy and Blindman2 I would definitely linger more on Blindman2 than I would Percy. sigh.

so what's a girl to do when she has  a group date this weekend and has tentative plans with Grizzly Bear that she doesn't want to happen? When said girl would love to see Percy again but would also really like to see the possibilities with Blindman2 but he's GOT to make the next move.

gah.  Stupid flying wrench.

Fridayness

I am so happy it is Friday! The weekend is here again! I'm excited for the few plans I have this weekend, but first I must catch you up on my life. I really have been super busy, but no worries! I am taking the time now to blog about my life. I love life. It has been so great to me as of late. I've been thinking on how I want to do this - either by day or by subject matter, and I think we'll go with by day. Seems like a great way to go, in my opinion.

Friday, July 1st

I didn't have to work this day. I was so super happy about this! A four-day weekend just for me! (well, and half of my company...) Regardless, I was excited to have an extra day off. I started the day off by having lunch with my best friend from high school, her husband and her husband's best friend from high school. It was good times. They had really wanted me to meet this friend - to see if anything clicked. He seemed like a great guy, but not much clicked. It was all good though - I got to eat lunch with really fun people at the Pizza Pie Cafe so I was a happy camper.

After that I went to the Draper Utah Temple and then came home to eat some dinner before going to rehearsal. Rehearsal was good that night and I realized that I have to memorize the words to the songs I'm singing. I sort of forgot about that. I'm happy to report that since then I have memorized 1.5 of my 3 songs. GO me!

After rehearsal I went over to Grizzly Bear's house and watched The Adjustment Bureau.  I liked this movie a lot. I always love movies with dancers in them - the people who danced in this film were phenomenal. I loved watching it even if it was just for a brief moment. I enjoy hanging out with Grizzly Bear. We cuddled a little bit, but that was it. Since then we haven't really texted or anything. I think he's lost interest. I don't really know that for sure, but that's my guess.

Saturday, July 2nd

The only plans I had for this day were that of going to the Stadium of Fire with Percy.  I slept in that morning and then ran some errands and stuff. I also cleaned my room. I love having a clean room. Makes me happy.  I curled my hair super cute and Percy met me at my apartment just before 6 pm. We drove down to Cougartown and picked up a pizza at Papa John's. We then went to campus (where I found THE BEST PLACE to park in the whole wide world! Seriously! NOBODY parked there!) were we had a picnic dinner. Percy is a great conversationalist and I really enjoy sitting and talking with him. It's fun times. After our picnic, and after we had taken the picnic stuff back to my car we walked over to LaVell Edwards Stadium. We played a game of people watching (which I totally won. I think.) and then went into the stadium. We didn't have AMAZING seats, but they weren't horrid either.

The Stadium of Fire was AMAZING. I loved being able to see my friend The Whits perform (even though they didn't win) and David Archuleta was cute as always. My favorite performance of the night? Brad Paisley. Hands down! Not only does that man sing well, and is attractive as all get out - but he performs a great concert! He was fun to see and it was a really fun show. The fireworks that followed were incredible and I loved seeing them from inside the stadium. It had been 15 years since I last saw the fireworks from inside the stadium and I was much impressed. Percy put his arm around me and we sat there enjoying the awesome display.

We ended up going to Walmart together to pick up some things for our individual Sunday dinners and we just continued to have a blast together. He asked me if we could go out again and I agreed. A date hasn't been set because with my rehearsal schedule and his busy life we haven't been able to find a time that works. I'm sure that we'll make it work sometime very soon.

Sunday, July 3rd

This day was uneventful. Had dinner with Truit and her husband. Played games with friends. Went to church. Not necessarily in that order. ;)

Monday, July 4th

Happy Independence Day! I started off celebrating the day by sleeping in, cleaning my kitchen, and making some yummy food. Then Sister B, her husband, and I all went to Seven Peaks. We had a blast spending the afternoon playing in the water and riding awesome slides. After our adventures there we went back to their apartment and BBQ'd yummy food on their new grill and played Yahtzee. Such fun times!

So there you go. I had an amazing holiday weekend and I'm looking forward to some fun times this weekend as well. I have rehearsal tonight and then I plan on going to bed ridiculously early since I've been up way too late the past three nights. Tomorrow I'm going to pick up my Bountiful Basket, visit my sister and go to rehearsal. I don't have any solid plans for tomorrow evening yet, but if all else fails I plan on breaking in my brand new sewing machine by either making an apron or some new throw pillows for the living room. :o) I live a crazy life, I know. ;)

Thursdays are my fave...

I LOVE Thursdays. Seriously. I especially love Thursdays when I don't work on Friday because THEN it turns into Frusday! (Friday+Thursday)

anywho. Because it's Thursday that can only mean one thing around here in Alishka Babushka land.....

• first off, it's the 4th of July weekend! Wahoo! Fireworks! Barbecues! Friends! Picnics! YAY!!!! 

• I have a 4-day weekend! Since it's my Friday off and I have Monday off for the holiday....I can party! almost!

• I have rehearsal almost every night these days. The next two weeks there are a couple of days where I don't have rehearsal, but mostly it's every night. I don't mind, I'm having a blast!

• I'm making new friends with the cast of AIDA. The people in the cast are all so nice. It's a grand ol' time!

• I might have a date with Grizzly Bear tomorrow night. If, and only if, he gets his act together and calls me up to ask me out like I told him he should. We'll see how that goes down. IF it goes down.

• I got tickets to the Stadium of Fire from a friend...so I called up Percy to see if he wanted to go with me.

• He said YES!

• I am really excited about the Stadium of Fire for three reasons.
• Reason #1 - Brad Paisley. I hear he's amazing in concert.
• Reason #2 - my friend Sweetums (remember him?!) is in a band that is in the FINAL 3 for the talent search competition being featured in this year's Stadium of Fire!
• Reason #3 - Percy is my date! And we get to watch fireworks! It's going to be sooooo romantic! ;)

• I haven't really had a "romantic" evening date with Percy as of yet. I'm excited to spend more time with him...not during lunch. ha ha ha.

• I have a BBQ with Truit + husband. I'm stoked for that! It's going to be a blast! I love her AND her husband!

• My boss took me to lunch today. We went to a Thai restaurant. I love, love, love Thai food SO MUCH.

• I ate dinner with a former roommate yesterday. She's the best. I love her a lot and I am so glad that we got to sit and chat.

• We then took advantage of the semi-annual sale at Bath and Body Works. I got a new scent that I'm excited to wear on a regular basis. :o)

I think that's about it. I'm pretty happy today. :o) I'm really looking forward to the long weekend. It will be nice to have some time off. :o)

Dating Battle Stories: Marathon of Dates Part Two

see part one here

Date #4 - April 16th

My best friend Truit married this great guy. I am really good friends with this couple and I love doing things with them. We have dinner on some Sundays, they went to the temple with me, basically these guys are awesome-sauce.  Anyways, about two-ish weeks ago I was hanging out with them and Truit's husband mentions how he has single friends - specifically his classmate that he studies with all the time. I ask him why he hasn't set me up yet and he promises to get right on that. last week he calls me and we set up the date. Let's call my date Blindman2 (original right? ha ha).

So, I met Blindman2 at Truit's apartment and all four of us went off to Macaroni Grill. I got the same dish as the last time I was there and it didn't disappoint. :o) conversation flowed nicely at dinner and Blindman2 was nice. He's definitely a nerd - but a nice one so it's okay. After dinner we opted to go back to the Truit's apartment and played a few games while chatting. It was fun and Blindman2 was great company. At the end of the date he got my number, which I take as a good sign. He hasn't used my number since, but it has been finals time so I'm not too worried. We'll see what happens. I'm open to having a second date, but who knows.

In the Works:
 
Tonight I have a date #2 with Fryman and then tomorrow I have date #3 with the Argonaut. Also, remember this post where I mentioned this boy? Well, I finally got BRAVE and sent him an email via Facebook (gotta love Facebook - plus we were friends b/c of the concert) basically asking him to go out to dinner with me. Well...he replied and said.... YES! So, I'm not sure when yet, but we're going to get together and get to know each other better. I'm all sorts of excited about it.

Also, I asked the Australian to go on a real date with me, and he told me he likes me and loves hanging out with me, but he's not in a place to really date me for reals right now. So...we're going to stay friends. I'm okay with this. I'm glad I took the risk to ask him and luckily for me it hasn't changed my friend with benefits (sort of) status that we have. Ha.

Anyways, life is peachy, work is nuts, my sister is getting married in less than 2 months and I am very ready for Spring to be here.

Dating Battle Stories: Catch-up

So....it's been a while since I've posted any kind of Dating Battle Story. I'm sorry. I really am. Life is just crazy busy and I just haven't taken the TIME to blog about it! So let's do a little catch-up since the last go around shall we?

So I mentioned in a Thursdsay Things post that Tron got a girlfriend that wasn't me. So yeah, that happened.

I went on a date with a boy from my ward and then I met someone online. We're going to call this dude the Argonaut. Anyways, the Argonaut called me last night to ask me to come to a game night/steak dinner night at his place tomorrow night. Unfortunately, I already had plans to go to a concert thing by Sweetums and friends and since I haven't seen him in ages (or others in his band that I know) and I want to support the cause the are playing for...I told Argonaut no. He was sad, but we made plans to make dinner together next Thursday night.

As mentioned yesterday I asked out Norsnob to go to Ballet West with me. I'm in the process of trying to find a really awesome, adventurous restaurant to eat at - so if you have any suggestions for something in the Salt Lake area I would gladly appreciate it.

My best friend Truit and her husband were over at my house last week and while chit-chatting it was decided that Truit's husband was going to set me up with his classmate. We're probably going to double next weekend. Should be fun times, I think. Blind dates are always interesting - but he sounds cool so I'm all over that.

So there you go. My interesting dating life as we know it. I'm still using the internet - although I'm not sure I'll renew my subscription to ldssingles....but who knows. Maybe? Until the next date happens...keep flirting! :o)

Tender Mercy Tuesday - 16th Edition

Well here we are my dear internet friends. Another Tuesday. This past week has been chock-full of crazy, happiness and of course, my surprises.

The 3rd and final surprise was a bridal shower for my little sister. It was a fun, simple party that was enjoyed by all.

Also, it was GREAT fun to have my Mom here. I think that is one of my favorite tender mercies from the past week - seeing my mom! Getting to spend time with her and do fun things was so wonderful. I had 2.5 days off of work and it was nice to have a little mini-vacay even if I didn't go anywhere. I'll get another one of those in the June when I have both my sister's wedding AND the big, huge June recital happening. :o) It will be fun times.

Anyways, I have one other Tender Mercy that I want to share. It relates to my post from Friday. I got to go the temple on Friday and do my own temple work. It was an amazing experience receiving the blessings and making covenants associated with the endowment. I will always remember that day. My best friend, Truit, and her husband came and then my mom was there. I am excited to go again and again doing the temple work for my and others' ancestors. All in all, I have been astounded by the amount of love I have felt in the past several days. My eyes have been opened in so many ways and I know that I made the right choice in going when I did. :o) I am happy.

Now I am just getting ready for the 181st Annual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is going to be a good one, I can feel it. Not that there has ever been a bad one, but I know that this one is going to be just full of awesome. Hopefully spring will start coming, it's supposed to be REALLY nice on Friday but then snow on Saturday/Sunday. :o)

Birthday Friday Fun!

Hey y'all! guess what? My birthday is on Monday! I'm spending the weekend celebrating with friends and stuff and I'm rather excited about it! In years past I've managed to get my birthday to last a week or so, I think it will last about 3 days this year. :o) Regardless, it should be a fun milestone birthday and I'm looking forward to eating cake. I love cake.

In other news Tron is NOT coming to my birthday party. :( stupid soccer game. He is, however, stopping by my place tonight to 1)bring me my mug and 2)see me. heee. Can you tell I'm just a little bit twitterpated over him?

Also, birds are chirping outside my office window this morning. Love the chirping birds! Even though it is supposed to snow on my birthday (that is not a happy birthday gift mother nature!) I can definitely tell that spring is coming. :o)

Finally, A little friday-fill ins for you followed by my favorite Friday Foto of the week! weee!!!! Enjoy your weekend y'all!!!

1. Bring your favorite Disney movie and we'll have a movie marathon!

2. I love it when batteries are included.

3. My birthday is exactly THREE days away!

4. Well, you see, I love cake, balloons, parties, friends and pinatas! Why wouldn't I love birthdays?

5. I'll be able to rent a car soon!

6. But what if snows? Then I'll make a snowman! I still have yet to play in the snow this year...

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to a visit from Tron and birthday party preparations, tomorrow my plans include ballet, my birthday party and stake conference and Sunday, I want to enjoy stake conference and my dinner party with Truit and husband!

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 I just love this image...this perfectly depicts what spring is like in Utah. Love it. Have a great weekend y'all!