There is No Fear, Only Excitement in Disguise

So there's this little thing that I'm keeping a secret from my husband. Why am I blogging about it? Because it's safe here. My husband never reads my blog! Anyway I did something a little crazy today. I donated plasma! And everything went just fine! My mouth felt a little cold, and my lips tingled, but I made my way home fine. Why is this such a big deal?

The first time I donated plasma I felt fine. They told me I should sit down for a minute, so I did, but then I felt fine to walk the six or so blocks home. I had to run a little to get across a street, and then I had to walk up a hill. Still feeling fine. I was still a decent distance from my dorm when someone stopped me and asked me what my last name was. I turned around and saw a missionary that had served in my area back home! He was off his mission and going to school. We caught up for a little bit, and then he said he had to leave. That's when I noticed I was feeling a little funny, so I asked him if he would just make sure I made it home all right. I hit the ground two steps later. He had to half carry half drag me the rest of the way to my dorm. Uphill. Leaving his bike where we had stopped to talk. It sucked. Looking back I'm really surprised that no one else stopped to help us. 

 

Anyway almost every time after that I've gotten a little lightheaded after donating, and twice I've gotten really sick. I've been deferred a few times because of bruising. I can only donate with my right arm so there's always the risk that they won't be able to return my blood to me. Why would I go back? Well Steven has been feeling a little bad because he has a full time job that he LOATHES, while it seems like I just sit around. I haven't been able to find a full time job, but I do have a part time job that's kinda cushy. And then there's my problem with wanting to buy lots of clothes and expensive food. So I wanted to bring a little more money in. But I didn't want to make a big deal about it in case it didn't work out.

BUT IT DID WORK OUT!!! I super prepped. I drank TONS of water, worked out and ate a high protein meal, took Arnica 200c to help ease the trauma to the venipuncture site, Pod and Poc-ed my way through all of the scary memories that came up, and ran Reiki the whole time. 

Yet this is what really stunned me. Instead of being afraid, I found that I was really excited. Like smiley excited. Like pulling faces in the bathroom mirror after... ahem... preparing my urine sample. Like practically bouncing onto the donor floor. And that's when it hit me. It's really true what they say, that fear doesn't exist. That what we call fear is actually EXCITEMENT in disguise. Think about it! It makes so much sense! It's what keeps us from following our dreams. We think we're scared, but we're really just so excited that we can't even contain it and our brains cross wires and it presents itself as fear. So do you think you're scared of, but you're actually ecstatically excited for?

A Freedom Space

Steven has been working some interesting hours in Idaho Falls. Although he mostly works from 2-11, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays he's been working more in the middle of the day. So I decided to start going with him and working for my mom from the library. And I just have to say that the Idaho Falls library is BOSS. There's a flipping fish pond INSIDE. So I found a little nook that nobody's ever in (which is strange because it's really not that little, there's two big tables and seven chairs) and set up my little office. It's great because I don't have the temptation of the Xbox, or the temptation of my refrigerator. Unfortunately, with the car, I have the temptations of shopping and fast food, especially since I have to go move my car every two hours anyway. But during those two hours I often get a lot of work done! Next week I'm thinking that I'll visit the museums in town when I move my car.

So about work... GO CHECK OUT MY MOM'S WEBSITE! I uploaded a new and better video for the front page, I have all the links to Facebook and Twitter and the like working, and there's a section to show what is new!

Summer Bucket List

A while ago I realized that my husband can't be my end all. I still have to have friends to do stuff with, especially since he doesn't like doing lots of stuff with me. Unfortunately, despite all the things to do in Rexburg this time of year, I haven't really had the chance to do any of them, and everyone is either leaving town or having a baby, so I don't have anyone to go on adventures with me! So here's the list of things that I hope will show up in the next three months:

1. Swimming at Rigby Lake 

2. FLOATING (Please PLEASE someone take me floating!!!)

3. Spelunking in the ice caves

4. Going to a movie at the drive-in

5. Visit Yellowstone for the first time

6. Go to the sand dunes

7. Visit Mesa Falls again

8. Go to Big Jud's (at least this one is baby friendly)

So, you know, if anyone wants to help me with this, that would be, you know, great. ;) This list is subject to growth as I think of more things I really want to do...

Pinter-esque Magnet Board

Since my first day on Pinterest I've seen these cute magnet boards for all kind of different things like calendars, menus, etc. Well I need a lot more space on a calendar, and I don't really cook a lot, so I didn't think much of the magnet board fad until I saw an idea for a makeup magnet board. I didn't want to buy all the "ingredients" used by the tutorial, so the idea had to germinate for a while until I found these babies out in the hall.

Finally, the perfect magnet board! If you've talked to me for more than five minutes I've probably mentioned Dressing Your Truth and how I'm a T3. Well when you order things from the store, they come packed in tissue paper that's your type. Since I'm a little addicted to everything T3 and ordering things online, I have a nice little stack of these.

I'm not much of one for following directions on tutorials if I already know what I'm doing, so I just grabbed my tools and went to town.

 Decoupaging is super simple. You just paint the backside of your paper with watered down glue and attach it to your object. Then you paint over it to seal it.

I felt like my trays needed some definition so I painted the edges. Totally tacky-trashy chic right?

Although my original plan had been to use both boards, I decided to just use the square one for now. I hot glued a piece of braided jute to the back of the board to serve as a hanger. Then I hot glued magnets to the backs of most of my makeup and stuck 'em on. The only good place to hang it in my bathroom was right over the outlet, but I rarely use it anyway.

I'm super happy with it. It doesn't look super spectacular in this picture, but n real life it's pretty sweet. I keep my brushes and mascara and eyeliner in a little vase on the counter, where my compacts didn't fit. My limited counter and drawer space makes this a really optimal, and awesomely T3 solution!

Still Alive

I know I haven't blogged in a while, and there are a lot of good reasons for that.

First: I didn't really realize anyone would notice. Apparently more people read my blog than I knew... :D

Second: I'm really struggling with the whole purpose of this blog. And there's the part where everyone else's blogs have pictures, and I'm struggling to make photography more a part of my every day. It's hard for me to post this now knowing that I have no pictures for it.

Third: I'VE BEEN BUSY AS HECK. I was finishing up some work I had been doing for my senior project and still wanted to help with as a resume booster. Then almost the second that was done I was off to Texas for ten days for a family reunion and working for my mom. Where I didn't take any pictures.

So I promise to repent and blog more frequently. I actually have about 7 drafts for blogs that just need finished up with pictures that either I need to take or am waiting for from other people, or I need to finish a project and then photograph it.

Hard Evidence

In a previous blog I mentioned finding awesome things in the hall of our apartment building. We live in a historic building that used to be a hotel, and there are interesting nooks and crannies. One of these is the entrance to a storage closet in one of the main hallways. This is the unofficial dump for all things which the residents would rather not have to cart off to Deseret Industries. I have found all kinds of things here, from a desk, to my yellow "Ellie" chair (like from the movie Up), to plastic shot glasses (there's gotta be something crafty I can do with those, right?) and much much more. A few weeks ago I started wishlisting a few items such as a box fan, shelves, and an ironing board. I didn't really think much about them, sort of added them to an internal list of things I should look for at D.I. Lo and behold, within a week, they all showed up in the hallway. 

Now, I'm a big believer in the law of attraction and the power of positive thinking. Doesn't mean I'm always the best at it. I struggle to keep my thoughts in line with my beliefs. However my subconscious started looking out for me.

If you've ever been shopping with me, or honestly if you've talked to me for over five minutes, you know I practice something called Dressing Your Truth. Basically I believe that my personal energy frequency, what I call a dominate Type 3, coordinates my personality, facial features, movement, and what clothing looks best on me, among other things. I'm in a group for my type on Facebook, and we like to post pictures of our outfits. One problem. My husband thinks the whole thing is incredibly stupid and refuses to take my picture. We just laugh, roll our eyes, and say "typical Type 4" under our breaths. So I wrote "tripod" on my white board. And put it out of my mind. I've been too busy to worry about taking my picture lately. However, the universe didn't put it out of it's mind. Today my husband walked in with a tripod he found out in the hall. My eyes immediately went to the board. Coincidence? Maybe. I think the law of attraction actually makes a better scientific case than this messy thing we call coincidence.

Do you need more proof? I hit my head pretty badly and had an awful headache today. I was thinking about how badly I probably needed a chiropractic adjustment, but it wasn't really in my budget. So of course my chiropractor called me to let me know that free adjustment day is tomorrow. COINCIDENCE? Perhaps. Perhaps not ;)

UNLIMITED GREEN ONIONS! MUAHAHAHAHA!!!

My life philosophy is that if experience and knowledge are the only things you can take with you, you'd better acquire as much of it as you can. That being said, I also consider the smallest things to be great experiences. For example, in my quest to make as much of Pinterest as I can (actually USING it instead of just looking at pretty things) I came across the idea of growing your own green onions. You just don't use the roots of the bunch you buy from the store, and then put them in a jar of water like so:

I stuck them outside the window in the little hallway that serves as our "fire escape" and sometimes has some natural light. Apparently it has enough! See how tall those suckers got! I don't know if they'll continue to grow as fast as I'd like, but I've gotten much more out of them than I usually get, especially since I never finish them before they wilt. If nothing else if I end up buying more, I can get them to last longer by just keeping them alive. Can I just say how super exciting this is? It's just a little thing, but I really love green onions. I mean I really love green onions.