Watch Out Crystal

Meet Ty. I get to watch him every week. I love it! Crystal better be careful, cause one day I am going to take him home with me...... Watch out girl

Quirky Rachel

As I was sitting in my other night class, Psychology 1100-Human Development, my mind was wandering all over the place. Since there wasn't a Susie to distract me, I had to come up with something else. I started thinking of my quirks. At no surprise to me, the list started to grow. Here I am in all my glory.

-I put ketchup on lots of random items including: eggs, macaroni, ham, chicken, roast, turkey, steak, tacos, burritos, etc...
-If I like a movie I can watch it again and again. (I've lost track of how many times I have seen Anne of Green Gables, Nacho Libre, or Pride and Predjudice)
-If I come home to an empty house at night I look in every possible hiding place for a bad guy to be hiding....seriously
-I put pajamas on to get ready after I shower so that I don't sweat on my clothes.
-I am bad at staying in touch over the phone with friends. Thank heavens for blogs.
-I procrastinate, but end up doing my best work when under pressure.
-My arms have to be tucked in or wrapped around something for me to fall asleep.
-Thick, dark, cloudy skies make me happy, and I am even more ecstatic when lightning begins
-I love doing my laundry. (I do at least 2 loads per week, and for being single I think that is a lot)
-I love ice cream and would replace a meal for a shake.
-I make a weird face while applying makeup
-I look at people and want to fix their eyebrows, hair, and sometimes I go as far as wanting to dress them.
-I stress when my savings account drops below a certain point
-My toes are disgusting from running
-I am a night owl
-I get sidetracked easily (hence writing this list in Psych)
-I love 80s rock
-If I am around someone with an accent, I start talking like them
-I don't like listening to voicemails, but get frustrated when an unknown number calls and doesn't leave a message
-I need chapstick,my phone, and gum at all times. If I leave the house without one of these items it throws me off for the rest of the day.
-I have to be doing something with my hands to engage my mind. During conference I like to do a puzzle and during class I doodle and make lists all over my margins
-my left foot is a half of a size smaller than my right foot.
-I don't like to wear my hair down.
-I can't do anything in the morning unless my teeth are brushed.

I know there are more, but that is just what I came up with in 2 hours of class Tuesday night. Don't worry, Susie is developing into quite the gal. I will put a post up at the end of the semester and hopefully a picture too.

Oh Susie

I'll admit that I had back-to-school jitters today as I drove to school. With a full load of classes, a full-time job, and recent hobbies I've picked up, I feel I am going to have to do quite a bit of adjusting to this new schedule. I decided that in each of my classes I am going to have to pick a focal point, so that when I get distracted, I will have someone to focus my ADHD thoughts on.

My Nutrition class is every Wednesday from 6-8:40pm. It's going to be rough, but thankfully there is a Susie in there to keep my thoughts distracted. When I say Susie, I mean Susie Talks A Lot (the doll)! This girl has her hand raised every five minutes. Do the math, and with that amount of time spent in class, we are hearing from her a ton. Her comments usually don't really tie into the lecture, but they are entertaining. During the beginning of class I was irritated, but by the end I was so excited to hear what she had to say because everything that came out made her sound drunk. I decided to scribble notes down about her so that by the end of the semester I would see all that I learned about her through her abstract comments.

After two and a half hours, this is what I learned about her:
-Her dad has a bad coffee addiction
-She moved from AZ and has very dry lips and skin and needs to drink more water
-Her grandpa is from Denmark
-Her boyfriend's mother was born in the fifties, so she has some crazy eating habits?
-She and her mother watch the Biggest Loser each week and eat popcorn while watching
-She loves Del Taco
-Her stepdad is from Guam and is an American Indian with high cholesterol
-She doesn't take notes
-She plays solitaire on her computer throughout class (I think she also has ADHD)
-She cuts the fingers off of her gloves

Even though everyone rolls their eyes when they see her hand up, I am excited to see what character she develops into. More notes are taken on Susie than on the course material.

Oh Susie, thanks for the entertainment!
-

Singles, Temple Square, Christmas Lights, Buses, Christmas Carols, and Grandma

We were told that we could bring a date to our ward Christmas party. I decided that Grandma DeFreese would be the best choice. She participated in singing Christmas carols, chatted with all of my friends, and wandered around Temple Square with me. Everyone loved her! We even matched.

Our Christmas activity consisted of catching the chartered buses, watching the Joseph Smith movie, and then wandering around Temple Square drinking hot chocolate and looking at all the lights.

It was fun. It was freezing. It made it feel like Christmas.

How can you tell it's finals week?

The M and M border is no longer around our beautiful creation


There aren't anymore green gum drops!

let Him in

Last night I went to the Forgotten Carols with my friend Eric, and I loved it! My favorite song was the first one, Let Him In. The music, spirit, and Christmas spirit were so overwhelming! I wish everyone could see the show. The whole show was centered around Christ, and I think at least 50% of the eyes that were watching were wet--if not, they couldn't talk because of the lumps in their throats. Eric bought the cd after the show and the four of us enjoyed the music all the way home.

Thanks Eric!


Why Eric and I are close friends:


He is considerate and didn't want to give me mono, so he pasted a kiss on my photo,
he is a man that isn't afraid to let everyone know he wears nightgowns,

he watches other people do different trades, tries to copy the things that they do,


and, he plays dress-ups to keep life exciting

Fridays Are My Favorite

This entry is for journaling purposes, and may not be like my usual entries.

I love Fridays--always have! It started back when I was in elementary school. I would get so excited to watch TGIF, I lived for those two hours of television each week! Even if I was at a sleepover, partying would stop from 8pm-10pm, so we could watch our shows.

Now that I am 25, and there isn't TGIF any longer, I look forward to other things. I love getting the latest issue of People magazine, quickly doing the crossword in the back of the magazine--before anyone else can get to it, baby-sitting my friend Crystal's adorable little seven-month-old baby Ty, going out with friends at night, knowing that I don't have school the next day, but my favorite thing is that I get to visit with the same four ladies week after week as they get their hair 'set' for the week.

Janet, Jackie, Billie, and Gayle have been coming in to visit me on Fridays for 3-4 years. I have developed great relationships with each of them. Yes, these women go a full week without washing or styling their hair. I do it for them each week. Yes, I have to scrub their hair a time or two, and use tons of hairspray to make sure it'll stay for a full week. I love each of these women for various reasons!

--JANET--A beautiful lady that always is busy, so she shows up ten minutes late saying "sorry I am late, I was doing this....". She is in her mid-sixties, has five married children (one of them passed away from a tragic accident three years ago, leaving a family behind), is from Chicago, is adopted, is married to a retired oral surgeon, is involved in various community and church activities (book club, golf club, country club, dinner group, empty nesters, choir, state legislature, gospel doctrine teacher, etc.), is a grandma of several, travels around the world with her husband and their motorcycle to bike across different countries (recently New Zealand), travels to Hondurus each year to do dental work for those that can't afford it, and scrapbooks with her granddaughters.

She is a very busy woman! I love visiting with her! We discuss politics, church, family, and most importantly---my dating life! She keeps up with all of my dates and makes sure to check up on how each one of them went. I round brush the top of her hair and flip the bottom out, she looks very trendy when we are through with the product and styling.

--JACKIE--The client that has been coming to me the longest! She is darling! She shows up ten minutes early each week with a big "Hello, how's my girl?" She is in her late seventies, has 3 children and eleven grandchildren with her first great-grandchild on the way. Jackie is terrified of anything new. She is afraid that she will get lost or forget things. She loves routine, going out to eat (especially Sizzler), her family, crochetting (she makes tons of afgans for humanitarian groups), and watching shows on t.v. all day--especially Judge Judy. Her husband is a retired BYU professor who loves to hike around by himself. Each week while she is getting her hair done, she tells me that he is either up at Squaw Peak or the top of Y mountain. She complains about how her husband makes her leave her comfy recliner to walk around the mall--not something she enjoys. She loves Coca-cola, so I make sure to offer her one each time she comes in.

Jackie gets a perm and cut every three months. She likes her hair curled tightly to her head and then back-combed a ton so that it won't move for the week. I spray so much hairspray on her do, so much so that we caugh each Friday from fumes! I am so grateful to have her friendly face come see me each Friday!

--BILLIE--A cute frail, yet very mobile 97 year old. Billie makes me smile! She has never been really sick, so she is able to be up and moving around without a cane. Her husband passed away ten years ago from an illness. She has two daughters, and is from Boulder City, NV. Her name fascinated me, so I asked how she got it. She said that she and her brother hated their names growing up, so they gave each other nicknames. Buhla was her name, and so when everyone started calling her Billie, it stuck.

I love Billie because she has little moments of forgetfullness. She will have the rollers in her hair and be sitting under the dryer, but peek out and ask me to use the "wash room." Sometimes she goes (taking 10 minutes) comes and sits for five minutes before asking me that same question. I laugh each time and ask if she's sure she needs to go, and she insists, so I stop styling Jackie's hair to take her. She will also sit and read People magazine while under the dryer. She doesn't seem to turn many pages, so once I asked her what she was reading. Billie's response was "nothing really very good, Rachel," then I look at the page and find out that she is staring at adds...kills me each time! She loves visiting with Jackie each week (their appointments overlap), and I love listening to their conversations. Billie gets her hair set in rollers and the back-combed with lots of hairspray. We add combs and 'bobbys'--what Billie calls bobby pins. I just love seeing her each week and am very impressed with her physical condition!

--GAYLE--She is a very cute, quiet, fragile eighty year old. She is very particular about the temperature, the noise level, the smells, and how I curl her hair around her ears. She is the mother to two girls and has ten grandchildren and a couple of greats. She lost her husband about 15 years ago to polio. She worked so hard throughout her life to support the family. She took care of everything because of her husband's condition. Her daughter told me that she used to carry him draped on her back! What a woman! It's no wonder why she is more frail than my others, she was such a hard working woman her entire life! She gets all done up each week to visit with me. She has the nurses put on lipstick and eyeshadow, and I make sure to tell her that she looks lovely each week. She sleeps all the time, and gets out of the house once a week to see me. It took awhile to bond with Gayle because she is so picky and opinionated, but once we created the bond, she won't let it be broken.

I curl Gayle's hair in tight curls around her head and back-comb lightly--she doesn't like too much. We spray with hairspray, but lightly as well. She needs my hands to help her get in and out of her chair and to walk to and from the shampoo bowl. She doesn't want to be around much longer and is anxious to see her husband again. I really enjoy seeing Gayle, when she is well enough to make her appointments!

I used to wonder why older ladies carried around the plastic scarves for their hair, but now I understand. When you get your hair done once a week, you need to protect it from any disasters! Each of my ladies has a scarf with them!

Even though I sometimes would rather be doing a color on a younger lady, I wouldn't trade any of the appointments I have had with these women! I love seeing them each week! They are a great way to go into the weekend!