a tall personality

I was so graciously invited by one of my BEST friends ever Katie Bryson to join her on a Ragnar team for the Wasatch Back this weekend! Before I did a Ragnar, I only had some vague idea of what it was, so for those of you who don't know I'll explain Ragnar a little.  Each team of 12 has two vans with 6 runners each.  Each runner runs three times, so all six in van 1 run a leg, then all six in van 2 run a leg while van 1 rests/drives to where they pick up the race again, on and on.  The legs are of varying distances/difficulties runners of varying experience and in-shape-ness can participate.  You start Friday morning, run/drive all night (we slept 3 hours), and end Saturday afternoon or evening depending on how fast you are. Doesn't that sound like fun!?  Their motto is something to the effect of run, eat, sleep? repeat which about sums it up I was the last runner in van one, so I didn't run for several hours after we started.  My first leg was lik...

I had one REEEALLLY crappy day this week, but before I talk about that, I want to talk about how the rest of the week was so awesome. Monday I got a tattoo on my arm!  Just kidding,  I got to be a part of an awesome celebration of a marriage of two friends of mine.  They decided the Monday before their wedding they would organize a Tri for all their friends.  It happened to fall on May 5, so what did they call it?  Cinco de Tri-yo, of course!  We got to choose our numbers and I chose 99686, the Valdez zip code.  The next day I worked with some fun co-workers who teased me about my 'prison tattoo' all day.   Later that week we had the actual reception which was lovely and wonderful.  Kevin and Jerrica looked so happy and peaceful, plus they had a super fun party complete with a bean bag toss, ammo box tug-o-war, a tandem bike, and all my favorite people. And something curious happened. People kept asking me if I was Rainy, who...

 These are all the fun things I have been doing! Canyoneering in Robber's Roost!  I have done some canyons before but nothing like this experience.  It was much HARDER as there was less rappelling and walking and more down climbing.  Down climbing is rough!  Literally, the walls are like sandpaper and you use the friction of your body against them to not fall to your death. Despite being quite scared for much of the time I loved it and want to go again Cotopaxi Questival!  Ran around between SLC, Wyoming, Park City, and Provo for 26 hours with three great friends, scored lots of points (made it into the top 25 out of maybe 300? teams), did things I have never done (Homestead Crater), got an awesome backpack, and forgot to tuck my shirt in for this picture, oops.  It was such a cool picture though and one of the only ones on my phone :) Attempted Trail Ragnar in Zion with this lovely crew!  We're called the 509ers becaus...

I gave myself an Easter present to go visit Annie's family in Colorado!  I had never met baby Sadie and she had already been around for over a month so it was about time. Sadie is a cuuutteee little baby!  She looks a lot like Hailey did, has beautiful lighter colored eyes, and hair that sticks up no matter what you do to it.  My dad says that Hailey reminds him of Annie and Sadie reminds him of me. A 1 1/2 year old running around needing mom all the time gave me a lot of time to hold and rock and snuggle baby Sadie, I loved it! Everyone at church, the girls in their Easter dresses I brought them, soooo cute and fun to shop for nieces!  Sadie played a game at church called "fall asleep then wake up and scream the moment you walk into any meeting."  Apparently most parents are very familiar with this game but it was new to me. It was Herbert's birthday the day I left so Hailey colored this card for him, she's really getting good... She...

Sorry, it has been a few days!  I went to Idaho to visit this precious little thing. This is baby Anders, he's my best friend's little boy so I consider him my nephew.  He's like my nephew in law?  He's an adorable sweet little baby who didn't mind a stranger without much experience with itty bitty babies holding him a bunch!  So cute and fun to visit! I also came to see this guy!  Bennett is a rambunctious, witty (for a 3.5 year old), energetic, brilliant kiddo!  He told me the difference between protein and carbohydrate, beat me in memory, and he had me read him the whole Friend magazine twice.  The second time through he told ME all the stories.  Also he calls me "Auntie Sarah" which basically gets me to do whatever he wants! This morning doggie pile/snuggle was too cute (probably not Kaela's favorite picture but I just loved this moment!). We ate delicious food (ALWAYS delicious with Kaela), played at the park, wen...

Yesterday I tried to fix something myself on my car, ended up breaking it worse (surprise) and had to take it to the dealer.  At first they wanted to charge me a lot of money when I didn't really think was that hard to fix.  When I told them I thought they were full of it, in so many words, they made some calls and did it for much cheaper than they originally said. I would say that was a good experience compared to what happened today. I took it to a Jiffy Lube to get it tested for safety and emissions.  Here's a bit of the conversation about my breaks. So they showed me the breaks and how they measure them and how they pass... "So breaks that are 3 mm we advise you to change them, but you'll still pass, yours are all looking pretty good." "Oh ok, can we check all four because I'm hearing some grinding coming from somewhere." "Oh yeah they all look ok.." two guys exchange glances, guy who doesn't have the measurin...

 I really love Saturdays.  Wake up early, do laundry, get tons of stuff done, then play frisbee for hours.  It's perfect.  I especially like it when it works out so that my friend drives my car home and I ride on the motorcycle :) Mika loves to sit right on top of my clean folded laundry waiting to be put into drawers. Last night a friend and I ate probably 2/3 of a frozen pizza.  It was a late late night (we didn't even eat until 11) so I didn't bother to cover the rest of the pizza before I went to bed.  When I woke up it was GONE!  At first I thought maybe I woke up in the middle of the night and ate it and didn't remember.  Definitely not impossible...but you would think I would remember that. Then I found some crust on the ground.  And a mangled piece of crust left in the pan.  The evidence is starting to point to MIKA.  I couldn't 'believe she could eat that much pizza, crust and all so I looked all over my ...

Thursday I went on one of the most awesome super fun mega dates ever in history.  We went skiing.  At Deer Valley.  For free :)  I always feel kind of guilty about elaborate dates because even though they can be so much fun I know they are usually so expensive!  This one was super cool for lots of reasons but one of the reasons I could just relax and have a great time is because Chase works for Deer Valley so most everything was free :) Chase made a delicous breakfast and put mine in my own paper sack, with my name written on it.  Seriously, who does that?! Blueberry Mormon Mojitos with lunch.  That's a real fancy drink, and it had lots of real blueberries in it which I was pretty excited about.  I was so classy and used my straws as chopsticks to eat the blueberries.  Chase doesn't judge, and that's probably a good thing. It was a super beautiful day, and warm enough that we were never really worried about g...

This morning at 7:30 I went to my new job site to get  drug tested.  This is the second time I have tried to do this.  The first time I failed because I couldn't find the right place in time before my other job started.  So I had to call and reschedule. So this was the second try. But I forgot to drink water that morning.  Apparently they don't like that so much with drug tests.  It looks like you're being sneaky so they make you not leave the little room the drug test is in and drink water forever. So I drank...and I drank and I drank.  When I finally was ready to try again the lady asked me how many glasses of water I had consumed, as 4 was apparently the max.  I was like ummm yes I definitely drank 4.  I didn't tell her about the other 5 or 6 I consumed in addition to those 4. I arrived at my other job an hour late, and there was no cell service in the little room I had to stay in so I couldn't tell anyone. Good think no one n...

So, like I said in the title, days are getting busy and this is getting harder to keep up with! Grateful things 1: The awesome weather that we have been having and the bad weather we're about to have because I'm going to go skiing on Thursday :) Oh yeah. 2: New job opportunity at the U, I get to keep my already awesome jobs and also experience a new one.  Best of both...ummm all three worlds. 3. I skyped with my sister and saw Sadie for the first time!  She's adorable.  Like super super adorable.  And so is Hailey, she was dancing around like a crazy girl and I just love her! That's all folks

Mika rreealllyyy wanted to go outside today.  She is such a cool cat.  When I need her to come inside so I can leave I just stick my head out the door and call her name.  Nine times out of ten a few minutes later she is at the door meowing.  Seriously, she's a like a dog without all the work. Today was another beautiful day, and like Mika, I didn't get to go outside as much as I would have liked.  I did go to a picnic in the park in the evening which was fun!  I am finding it interesting that as I get older...and maybe this is a Salt Lake thing, but there is so much less of the 'cool groups' hanging out together and so much more of people really trying in earnest to meet new people and get to know them.  I think a lot of that is driven by wanting to date.  I still find it a little...staged sometimes but I definitely prefer it to feeling left out of 'cool groups!' Grateful things: 1. The members of my church.  From the outside m...

Saturday was my second day off in 18 days!  ugh!  That's too long to work in a row. It was a beautiful day and so I did my two favorite things Frisbee And hike with Lil! Grateful things (Friday and Saturday) 1. My mom's birthday was Friday!  She is so wonderful and I'm grateful that she and my dad can be there for my sister and her family as they're adjusting to life with Sadie. 2. I got to hold another friend's little baby.  She was so cute and it has been sooo amazing to watch this particular friend grow up and pull through very difficult trials to create a happy little family of her own. 3. Park City. Man that place is beautiful and interesting and delicious and fun and just cool.   4. Hanging out with friends at frisbee and staying a little after to get some practice in.  I'm rusty. 5. Opportunities to teach...and creating my own opportunities to teach about things I believe in and am passionate about . 6. H...

I seriously think this is one of the best songs ever written and ever sung.   As I, turn up the collar on  my favorite winter coat this wind is blowin' my mind. I see the kids in the street with not enough to eat,  Who am I to be blind,  pretending now to see their need? I say that last line to myself almost every single day.   I'm a social worker, ya know? I feel the message of this song in my bones. I have mentioned this before, I really feel like the world has invested in me.  I think the world has invested in everyone.  I owe it to EVERYONE and to myself to be the very best me I can be and do something to make the world better.  On some level I think that's why everyone who invested in me did it.  They thought, they hoped that somehow they could make a difference in the world because I might make a difference to the world. I've been a victim of  a selfish kind of love,  it's time that I rea...

My thoughts today have been mostly about my new niece, Sadie!  I looooovvvveeeeee this picture so much!  I think I can see Hailey (big sister) connecting with the the new baby who is going to be her little sister forever, and I hope her best friend. Hailey and Sadie are almost the same distance in age that Annie (their mom and my older sister) and I are.   Having Annie as my sister is and always has been a HUGE blessing in my life!  And I hope with all my heart that they can build a relationship like Annie and I have. Some nights, so late, I would knock lightly on Annie's door, come in and sit down on her floor.  We would talk until late...late...late... about what should we do about a fight with mom and dad, or about a hard assignment, or a struggling friendship, or boys, and even really life shaping things like what we thought about drugs and alcohol, and of course religion. We did this from the time we were pretty little until Annie lef...