Here’s my mom on the couch, loving the way the Vicodin courses through her veins.  At any point in time during her recovery naps, you could find at least one animal sometimes 2-3 curles up beside her keeping watch.  My job… keep them from sleeping on her foot.

I swore to myself that no matter how open and honest I strive to be here there are some subjects that are just too personal to discuss. However, I can’t help but gush to you about the new love in my life. He’s got dark hair and eyes. He’s sweet and cuddly and makes me oh so happy.  All of my family is head over heels in love with him, and I would give anything to make him mine forever.  But, alas, our love will never be (stupid apartment complex rules). Meet Hendrix. Isn’t he a doll?!?!

There’s a park in Spearfish, SD with a creek running through it and a hatchery and more green than an Arizona girl has ever known what to do with. I was worried with my grandma’s health that we wouldn’t get a chance to dip our toes in the water and visit this spot of so many of my best childhood summer vacation memories. We had picnics in the park with chilled watermelon and laughing cousins. We inner-tubed down that creek one summer day and chased one of my shoes down it another. Yet, somehow in my childhood wonder, I never quite grasped the beauty and serenity of that green oasis. Sometimes it takes returning to such a place as an adult to really cement what it was to you as a child. For a few hours on our last afternoon, we were kids again. We walked in the creek, picnicked in the creek, fed the fish at the hatchery, and enjoyed each other at the creek. Our souls didn’t feel the aches of our adult lives. Our love ones were missed but not mourned. It was the best way to end an amazing experience and remind us exactly who we were together and how no matter what that would never change.

I’m posting from a picture message from my cell phone because I know I won’t be ready to divulge the details of my trip tomorrow.  More than likely, I’ll either be sleeping, cleaning, or pep-talking myself into returning to work on Monday after a 9-day (!!!!) hiatus.  I have so many stories, thoughts and pictures to share over the next week, but for now I’ll leave you with the lone image I took on my cell phone camera.

(I took this last night at around 8:15 pm.  Proving that we were all smarter than a 5th grader exhausted the grandparents… Or maybe it was putting up with their Arizona grandkids… hmmm.)

Walking into the grocery store the other night, I had to hang up on my mom to take a picture of the sky.  There’s just something about this time of year that makes you want to stay outside as the sun sets in hopes you’l get the gift of such a sunset.  In typical Flagstaff fashion, by the time I exited the store 15 minutes later it was raining so hard the 50 foot jog to car had me soaked through a sweater and two tank tops down to my bra.

Hello Everyone!

I, like Cory, feel very honored that our lovely Laurel asked me to guest blog!  We are missing her very much, as I’m sure all of you are too (Don’t worry Cory, we’ll get through this together…maybe at the Monte V? *wink wink*).  Well there are so many things that I SHOULD be doing right now.  Papers that need to be written, chapters that need to be read, work that needs to be done, people that need to be called and sleep that needs to be had, but instead I am so glad that Laurel gave me something to get distracted with, because none of those things sound too appealing.  I know that Laurel just shared a few of her favorite websites that she makes a daily stop to, but I figured I would tell you about a few of the websites that I could get caught in for hours, wiki-style.  Most of the time when I’m bored at work these three websites win over anything productive that I am actually getting paid to do.

The first, and my favorite is foundmagazine.com.  This is a collection of items that people find anywhere such as, love letters, hate letters, to-do lists, drawings on napkins, photographs, old receipts and so much more.  The reason I love this is because it gives you small glimpse into people’s lives.  Now, I know what you’re thinking, ‘This girl is a huge creep!  Why am I still reading?!?!’ But I promise that I’m not!  I’m just a people watcher and the things that people do and how they interact with eachother is so fasinating to me!  (Yes, the fact that I chose to major in Sociology probably makes so much more sense now).  I’ll stop rambling on about my people watching, so you can go check it out for yourself.  I guarantee, at the very least, you’ll be amused.

The next one isn’t an everyday visit, it’s a once a week visit.  You’ve probably seen it, or at least heard of it: postsecret.blogspot.com.  This website is where people make an anonymous postcard of a secret they have and send it in.  Every Sunday a new batch of secrets are posted, some are funny, some can almost bring you to tears and some are therapeutic because you feel like you are reading your secret too and there’s just something about seeing it written out that makes you feel okay.  This would definitely be worth 10 minuets of your time to check out.

The last site I want to share with you is deviantart.com.  I love this site because it is a place for artists of all different kinds to share their work!  It ranges from body art to photography to collages to film and animation and everything in between.  This site has something for every person to appreciate.  I think you’ll enjoy it.

Well thank you for reading and accepting me and my random thoughts (oh geeze, I sound like JM). 

Have a great day! Lauren

Who would have known decor found within the aisles of Target wasn’t for educational purposes.  Guess Mom won’t be using this for her 7th grade class.