New Years and ISAAC!

This New Years holiday weekend was AMAZING!

Friday 12/30/2011: Half day at work!! Always great. Right before I left, they handed out sealed envelopes to each of us... with... a letter that... informed us of our... RAISE AND BONUS!! I got a raise! I got a bonus! They were very good in my opinion! I am stoked! After that, I ran errands. Then I went to my cute cute baby nephew Reese's 1st birthday party at my parents house. Then I left that to hang out at a jungle gym in the fog by Santa Monica Pier with my awesome friend Whitney that was visiting from Utah (and some other people). So great. Then the stores at the 3rd Street Promenade didn't close till 11, and I saw at Urban Outfitters that all their sale items were an additional 50% off! AAGGHH!! I bought a sweeeeeet dress for $10, adorable butt-tight cropped pants for $10, and- last but not least- BRONZE SEQUINNED LEGGINGS!!!!! FOR $15!!! And to cap it all off, I went to Taco Bell on the way home and got the back-and-for-a-limited-time-only Beefy Crunch Burrito! Awesome.

Saturday 12/31/2011: I have no idea what I did all day. Cleaned? Jogged? Ate? All I really know is that for some reason I didn't find my way to hanging out with Whitney again. That was dumb. Oh also what I know is that i COULD NOT make a decision about what I wanted to do that night!! Everyone and their mother (in the greater-LA LDS singles scene) was going to this huge event at Dave & Busters in Irvine. I don't know why but I was just noooottt feeling it. Well, my friends Alyson and Ashly were too cool to go to that and they invited me to go to Ikea with them! IKEA!?! That's like Disneyland!!! Way better than D&B. And even though we could get back in time for me to carpool to the huge event still, I elected to kick it with them and a couple other people back at their apartment. We just chatted and then watched Super 8, and paused it while the ball dropped! I ran outside to scream HAPPY NEW YEAR!! but no one else in Santa Monica was making a sound! What the heck. They must have all been at da clubs, getting a New Years kiss. After that I had a slumber party with A&A!

Sunday 1/1/2012: I woke up with some fly honeys! It was a really chill and fun morning. Then I went home and went on a walk on a PERFECTLY BEAUTIFUL DAY. Seriously, probably 75 degrees outside and sunny. Gotta love Southern California. (You just wait til 1/2/2012.) Then I got fabulous for church and people complimented me. Alright! I was wearing an unintentionally-bold lipstick that got some notice. Then I went back to Ashly's for a little dinner get-together and a few people came over and we just gabbed, and it was fun! Then I went home and stayed up too late :(

Monday 1/2/2012: Woke up too late to go on a jog or go to a diner I've been dying to try out- but instead went to Costco to redeem my generous and awesome membership giftcard Christmas present from my bro and sis-in-law. I'm officially a Costco Member! I feel like even more of a grown up now! Then I went to Sports Chalet and bought a new soccer ball- and got 25% off! (Do you love [hate] how many exclamation points I'm using?!?!?!) Man, 1) I really needed a new soccer ball, 2) It's surprising and ridiculous to me how much I'm truly enthralled by and in love with having my very own soccer ball. And this one is pretty beautiful and was cheap and it stays inflated for more than 20 minutes so I'm sold. So I didn't get to play with the soccer ball because I came home and saw on Facebook that my friends went to the beach without me... So I got ready and drove to the beach! IT WAS AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!! I love that it was a completely, legitimately wonderful beach day on the 2nd day of the year, at the beginning of winter. I wasn't cold for a moment. Even when I went in the ice cold water... I wasn't cold! Ok well obviously sort of- but I kid you not, I didn't even shiver! I don't understand. It was so great. I also played volleyball (my team won), played some silly tennis thing with some girlfriends, and got to kick my new soccer ball around too! I felt so fulfilled.

What a way to spend a day off from work, in January. After that I ran around my apartment trying to pack for the next few days because I'd be staying at my parents house (reason forthcoming). And while I did that, 2 new roommates came home/moved in! So I was buzzing around like crazy and probably gave a weird impression but oh well. I tried to pack and give tours and info all at the same time. Finally I got on the road (got Taco Bell again- because what makes a good day better but Taco Bell)... because...

Tuesday 1/3/2012: MY LITTLE BROTHER ISAAC IS COMING HOME FROM HIS MISSION TODAY!!!! Once i got home the night before, I made him a big sign, then in the morning our niece Colby (who skipped school for the first time for this) came over, I got ready, and we and my parents (and the sign) all got in the truck to go to LAX and pick up Elder Wutkee, who we hadn't seen for 2 years!! I really wish we could have had a bigger welcoming party, but it just wasn't in the cards. Everyone either had to return to work after a long vacation or had too many babies to deal with at home or lived too far away. Sad. So we went to the American Airlines terminal that we were totally unfamiliar with, and just after we'd gotten ourselves to the right area to see arriving passengers and I'd figured out how the flight schedule TV screens worked and had assured everyone Isaac hadn't landed yet, I hear my mom say "Well look who it is!" or something like that. Well of course it's not Isaac. His plane isn't here yet. I turned around. IT'S ISAAC!!! Haha. We were way gleeful, but quickly and momentarily hoisted up the sign and said "WELCOME HOME!!" and then I took it upon myself to give him the first hug. Yay!! He looks exactly the same- it really wasn't weird to see him at all. I was so happy! I told him, "I just want to hold you!" haha. I really did. You can see here:

Then we got Ike's baggage (caravan o' bags) and headed to my apartment nearby so he could see my digs. My dad stayed on the street with the truck to guard the baggage. With me, Colby, and my mom, Isaac came as far as the threshold and I was about to introduce him to the gaggle of chicks at my apartment, and he wouldn't come any further. I was so confused. He then expresses that he doesn't want to go in there without another Melchizedek priesthood holder in there! Oh man! Ha, he was still a missionary! So we got my dad to relax for a second and come in so Isaac could come in. After that we headed home (along the way, getting lots of nice texts and calls from distant, excited siblings), and Isaac finally decided on a place for us to meet up for lunch with our sister Jenalyn and her family. It was an inspired choice: Woodranch BBQ. Mmmmmmmmmm!!!! SO, needless to say, that was all very pleasant. Then we went home where Isaac got to do nothing really other than see his puppy dog again and then he and I were supposed to leave immediately to go shopping (to be back on time for other siblings/families to come over and see him around dinnertime) and he felt uncomfortable going with just me! Ah. Well it ended up being the 5 of us again, haha! That didn't go over as poorly as it could have- shopping warp speed, with a possibly-cranky dad and an entourage. We went to the Camarillo Outlets and Isaac got 2 pairs of pants that he really likes, and we didn't have time to get more of the essentials he was looking for. After all, he had to be an acceptable, date-able, cool guy ASAP since he was set to return to Idaho for school IMMEDIATELY! I'm just glad he wasn't stuck on being a goober and was looking for cool stuff. This despite what my brother Bennett had said, "...after all, you can't trust a kid that just bought COWBOY BOOTS to make his own fashion decisions." Hahaha. It's true, the child DID buy cowboy boots (he was serving in Fort Worth, Texas) but somehow he's balancing it out.
Then everyone came over. It was nice.
Here are boys being boys- playing with tech devices (our oldest brother [and other contributors] hooked Isaac up with a new iPhone!! He was overwhelmed but basically hasn't put it down.)
Isaac's best reaction happened with our niece Daisy walked in the room. She is now 8. She walked in and casually said hi, and Isaac said, obviously taken aback, "Whoa. Ok. I don't need to meet anybody else after this," like she totally took the cake for being the most-changed or something. He said something about her voice. Then he just shook her hand I think. haha. It was all funny and awesome. He got released and came back home around 9 that night. We stayed up late because he showed me and Jenalyn his mission pictures (didn't take that long because he really didn't take many) and I still didn't know if I'd even be able to see him ONE MORE TIME after that- there was talk of him possibly being gone before I was done with work the next day! Uggghhh!!! Well,

Wednesday 1/4/2012: I got to see him in the morning and gave him a hug- hoping it wouldn't be The Last Hug before he went to school. At work later I texted him and he said he wouldn't be leaving until the next morning! Yay! After work I called his cell phone and it rang and rang and finally I hear "Hello, this is Elder Wutkee." Whaaaaat??? Hahhaa, I was so perplexed for a second, like this was a recording (which in hindsight, makes no sense but whatever) and then I hear him say "...UGH, I don't know if I'm ever going to get used to this." Hah, something like that. That was my favorite thing about the day, other than getting a creme puff at the donut shop after buying a bunch of delicious groceries at Trader Joe's. Anyway, it was funny and sad. Poor little guy. Worked his butt off in Texas for 2 straight years- didn't even bother getting trunky- and how he has to transition SO FAST into normal life. So, that night we didn't bond much- just hung out in his room while he frazzled-ly packed up. Packed up his whole life for the 2nd time in a matter of days. Well I set my alarm to go off at 6 the next morning so I could

Thursday 1/5/2012: say good bye and send off my little brother less than 2 days after welcoming him back. Boo hooo! I told him I'd miss him, and he said he'd miss me too, and I knew it was sincere. :( :)

And back to life.