MIA

Ok friends, I realize that I haven't blogged in almost a month...I've been just a little busy to say the least, but in a good way...or so I tell myself.

And I'm heading out of town at 4:30am tomorrow to go to Lake Powell for another week, so I thought I'd give you a quick update and sneak peek of some of my pics from floral design school.

I started classes back on the first week of June. Heavenly. Basic floral design. Weddings. Special Events. And advanced floral designs and techniques will be in September...I just couldn't pull off missing work for a whole month...oh wait, I was still working nearly 30 hours/week while in school 9-5 everyday for the past 4 weeks. Haha. Silly me. 

What was I thinking? I'm crazy is what it comes down to - crazy about life though! And crazy about flowers! Love love love love love it. 

So my days have consisted of getting up wayyyy too early, heading to work at some early, God-forsaken hour of the day...(sorry, that's how I felt every morning), working a couple hours, driving from 8-9 to Anaheim (peak rush hour - BOO!), going to class from 9-5, driving back to work from 5-6 (again at peak rush hour - again, BOO!!!), working for a few more hours, sneaking to church stuff a couple times a week at night, then back to work, and even squeezing in the gym a couple times a week...the first 2 weeks...I gave up on the gym after week 2. Too exhausted. 

And the past week since I finished classes for the time being, my body has gone into total reject mode...I've been winding down and feeling like my body has just been giving up on me all week. It knows it's going on a blissfully peaceful, rockin', gorgeous fun vacation tomorrow. It gave up on me so much this morning that I totally played hookie and didn't even go to work...Shame on me. Instead, I slept in, did laundry, packed my bag (very small bag full of swimsuits, a pair of pj's and some undies), and went to the beach.

I would still be at the beach, but the plumber is here fixing my broken garbage disposal. So what better time for blogging than while trying to avoid seeing the nasty crack in my kitchen???

I repeat, I'm pretty stoked for vacation. I'll be in Lake Powell for 8 days. No cell phone reception, no Internet, nothing. Just me, good friends, God's beautiful creations, glassy water, sleeping under the stars, and decompressing from my life.......and I'm trying really hard to mentally feel okay about being in a swimsuit all week with 20 other people in my ward, and not feel like a fat cow (because that's generally how I've been feeling about my body lately...I'm the heaviest I've EVER been in my entire life, which is ultra depressing.) Oh well. I'm not gonna date any of these people anyway, so I need to continue to mentally work myself into feeling good and having a little bit of confidence in my womanly, needs some work body.  :)

Ok, that's it for now. 

possible disaster will soon ensue

my computer crashed at work today while i was gone at school. i haven't seen it yet, because i refused to go back to work after school because i was too scared of what is waiting for me. but one our other legal assistant who we just recently hired called me this morning, and first thing he said to me was, "you should be sitting down for this..."

that is never a good way to start a phone call.

then he told me that he was printing something from my computer (because it's the only one in our office hooked up to the color printer), and in the middle of it, it just froze up, crashed, and when it rebooted, everything was gone. every document. every piece of software. it was like it was a brand new computer. hard drive completely wiped clean.

this means a lot of bad things basically. but i'm crossing my fingers, praying hard (please also pray for me) and calling a smart IT guy tomorrow, in hopes that we can recover something, anything.

and yes, you're all asking yourself, don't you have a backup you dummy? well, yes and no. i have all of our client files (which is the bulk of our materials) on our network server, and also on a backup server. but my personal computer's hard drive? why would i ever think to be worried about that? oh wait...dummy. all of our accounting, billing, etc. is on MY computer. dumb. dumb. dumb.

but, in good faith, i'm still crossing my fingers and praying that my most recent backup was recent enough that not too much damage will be done.

wanna know what makes it all even worse though? this past monday night, after a busy weekend of church stuff/ward conference, stake relief society meetings and visits, and a full day of classes...monday night i'm sitting in my office working, and i get the very clear distinct thought, "beth, you should look into some sort of online data backup services in case your systems at work ever crashed." i had the though once and only once, but with great clarity. it didn't feel like a warning, and thus i didn't think too much of it. it was one of those things that i would "get to later" or even just next week when I'm back in the office full-time. should've listened. won't ignore that type of thought again.

pray for me. thanks.

the end.

amazing week. amazingly exhausted.

this will be short and sweet, but I'll write more later tonight probably.

floral design school = a dream come true. i'm loving every second of it. once i figure out how to get my pictures off my phone i will post them from this past week.

working early mornings, school all day, and working late nights, while trying to squish in everything else in life is making me completely and utterly exhausted. but in a good way.

today is ward conference. and i have to go to meetings early.

the end.

tomorrow it begins

the next chapter...or at least a piece of it.

so. freaking. stoked.

there are few words to describe how excited I am about it.

tomorrow. southern california school of floral design.

the end.





oh wait, and today was literally an amazing sabbath day. we had to bring extra chairs into the relief society room because we had too many people, and not enough chairs...that NEVER happens. let alone on a fast sunday when everyone ditches out cuz they're starving. and again, fast sunday when we're split and usually have like 10 people.

and lots of people told me i looked really pretty, which made me feel really great. I haven't gotten that in a while. it was super nice.

and there is hardly anything better than being able to recognize and feel what it feels like to be an instrument in god's hands, to accomplish something for him. the knowledge that he literally puts words into my mouth that are not my own, or influences me to actions that i would otherwise not do. so. stinking. amazing. i love it. i love the spirit. i love my calling. i love the restored gospel. i love truth.

i love my savior jesus christ. and i love having a personal, real relationship with him and with god.

the end for reals this time.   :)

Happy Sabbath!

all-time best motivation

wanna know what I recently discovered...the best motivation for getting fit, skinny and looking hot?

the answer = online dating.

barf.

is it really that hard to find a guy between the ages for 25-35, who already has a college degree and is working (even if for minimum wage, because let's be honest, the economy blows, and it says worlds about a guy who is working, even if it may not be his dream job for the time being, but does it none the less), is not 5'4", divorced with 2 kids, or is checking out my profile and happens to be 67 years old?

I repeat - barf.

online dating = awkward desperation.

but then I hear all of these stories about many of my seemingly normal friends actually meeting great people and being in relationships...and how? they met online.... what I want to know is where they actually met online...am I looking at all the wrong lds online dating sites? there's only a handful...come one people. let me in on the secret.

on top of all that, how do you really even begin to try and wrap yourself up into a 200 word profile? I'm so much more than that, and I hate trying to sell myself....clearly that's maybe one of the reasons dating doesn't seem to go so well for me... I'm bad at marketing apparently.

so here goes...all my loyal, faithful readers....haha...like 3 of you....can you all do me a favor? if you had to describe me in an introductory paragraph that you would be posting about me on an online dating site....what would you say? either comment, or shoot me an email. I'd like to hear it, because I can't do it for myself. but I'd like to keep trying, by whatever means, to get myself out there, and not give up hope. ugh. I repeat again = barf. and again = online dating = awkward desperation.

and finally, one last repeat = best motivation for getting skinny and hot...online dating.

I hope you enjoyed this, and are laughing in your seat at me. because I actually am doing the same.

amazing photography give away

hi faithful friends, my dearest friend and photographer extraordinaire is giving away a FREE, yes FREE, photoshoot. whether you're in Utah or California, you can win. Go check it out here:

http://definitionsofchelsie.blogspot.com/2011/05/im-giving-away.html

Chels is so talented. Secretly, I hope I win, and not you - but I promised I'd post.  :)

Cheers everyone!

men

maybe I just need to move back to the baltics where I got hit on more in a single day than I have in the past year in california. i once had a man dump out his bottle of vodka on the street because I told him I wouldn't marry him if he drank. haha.

so over it right now.

that is all. back to the baltics I go...