I Believe in Miracles

You remember the 2003 version of Peter Pan when Tinkerbell is dying and people around the world begin to chant "I do believe in fairies, I do. I do."? Yeah. That's me. I love that part. Let your childhood self free and believe. After all, the Bible teaches us that unless we "be converted, and become as little children, [we] shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:3). Now, many people who read of my miracles will say, "No. That's a coincidence, not a miracle" To you I say, "Curly hair don't care." I ignore your attempts to destroy my love of miracles and belief that they still exist today.

On Wednesday night (3/27) I was finishing up my golf class and went to return the empty bucket. The owner of the driving range asked me how I was doing. I told him I didn't think I was improving. He asked if I owned some golf clubs to practice my swing on. I told him how I didn't want to buy anything expensive, and I was having a hard time finding cheap girls clubs. He suggested only buying one club to practice on, and I said something about feeling like a loser only buying one club. Then he said "one moment" and went to find a girl's golf club. He gave it to me; I said I would bring it back next week, and he said "no. keep it." It was so nice. My heart melted. I thanked him and went on my merry way. I love kind people. Time to pay it forward. #miracleofkindnessandgenerosity

Thursday I had a long day in a very important meeting in our downtown office with Addy. I had to get there early, so I was expecting lots of traffic, except there wasn't. However, there *was* time for me to hit up a starbucks to get a hot chocolate (it was a little chilly). There was a cute guy in behind me who asked "isn't that a christmas drink" to which I responded "you should have the spirit of christmas with you year-round." #wittyme After my long day in meetings, I went home to finish last minute packing and have some dinner before heading to the airport.

I was going through security, putting my stuff on the conveyor belt, when the guy behind me says something along the lines of "are you following/stalking me?" As someone with residual stalker-like tendencies, this is always a valid question ;) I turned around to say something super sassy, but turned to see the smiling face of someone I actually know! I was kinda stunned. What are the odds? It turns out we were both heading to PHX for the weekend, and we were on the same flight. Well, you know how when you meet someone you kinda form this idea about who they are and what they're like? I've realized a few weeks ago that my ideas about him have about a 40% accuracy rating, which I thoroughly enjoy. He once again surprised me by suggesting we change our seats to the emergency row together. As explained in my previous post, say yes, unless you want the fun to end. I did not. It turns out you have to pay money to change assigned seats to the emergency row, so instead we got assigned regular seats together. Now you may say, that's just what friends do when they see each other, but you see, until this point, I thought he only talked to me in group social events to be nice. It had never crossed my mind he might actually *want* to get to know me. Once again, I was surprised, because for *some* reason he wanted to sit next to me on an airplane for a 3 hour flight. We talked over food, and we talked during the plane ride. He continuously surprised me as our conversation flowed, and I loved it. Was the 4 hour conversation the beginning of a beautiful friendship, or was he just being a nice/polite person? Well...only time will tell. More than likely, whatever the outcome, it will probably surprise me. #miracleoffriendshipwhenleastexpected

Note the confetti in my hair and on the floor :)

Speaking of beautiful friendships, I was picked up at the airport by the lovely miss erica, who suddenly had a lot of errands to run and wanted to endanger my life by texting and driving after picking me up. Of course, I stayed in a state of ignorant bliss. We finally got to her place, and she encouraged me to go put my stuff in her room. As I was putting my jacket on the chair at her desk, I screamed as someone smashed cascarones on my head and confetti fell everywhere. I turned to see the guilty culprilt who gave me a mini heart attack only to shout with joy and laugh as I saw Ben. Surprise! I wasn't expecting to see him till later in the weekend. Great surprise, because I was expecting anything and seeing Ben always makes me happy. I was covered in confetti, but I could only laugh and try to ignore the OCD feeling of having to clean the up the confetti off the floor immediately. Quidditch practice ran late, so Erica had to stall by running her funny errands, and was texting Ben to make the surprise work. So really she risked my life for the good cause of bringing me joy. Ben, Erica and I ended up chatting for a while. Eventually Erica brought in a lot of pillows and we made a mini lounge on the floor. We were all sitting into a comfy zone which led to all of us falling asleep as we were talking. Finally, around 3pm, we somehow woke up and Ben staggered out the door, and magically made it back to his place unharmed. #miracleofsurprisesandjoy

Friday morning started a wee bit sluggish as we were functioning on a few hours of sleep. Erica had to get to work, and I had to get to Stine's to hang out with her a lil' Lia. We bid Erica farewell to work and Jordan (Stine's husband) farewell to school for his Calculus quiz (even though it's Good Friday). Stine, Lia, and I went on a walk. I felt so domestic pushing Lia in her stroller, with Stine walking the dog. We went to the park, where all the kids loved the dog and we loved swinging with Lia. The rest of the morning was us talking about everything  possible and me soaking in Lia-time. She's unbelievably adorable. Erica got off work early, and Jordan finished his test so we were able to get together for a little bit longer, till Jordan and Stine had a sealing to go to. Erica and I met up with Matt to have papusas at the papusaria we love. We accidentally told Matt the papusas were smaller than they were, so he wasn't hungry for Bahama Bucks after lunch. Oops. But really, I feel horrible because no one should ever miss an opportunity to eat at Bahama Bucks. The shame. But we had a great time! Matt is one of the handful of friends I still have from freshman year! (because they turned out to be terrible people or got married so single people no longer exist to them). He's awesome, and he served his mission in Germany, so he loves it as much as i do :) We hung out at Bahama Bucks, as Erica had to go back to work and eventually Stine and Jordan joined us. Then I said my goodbyes to Matt, and went over to Jordan's family's house to dye Easter eggs!

Now, I've known Jordan and Stine for a while. I also am friends with one of Jordan's older brother's, Marshall. Last time I saw Marshall was when Stine and I had a girls night and went to see him in Much Ado About Nothing. It was great, and he was so happy to see me. Call me vain, but I was expecting the same reaction. I saw him playing on the floor with one of his neices, and when he just looked up at me and casaully said "hey", I was a little disappointed. As I was looking around the room, *REAL* Marshall popped into my sight and gave me a hug and an enthusiastic welcome. I had seen Marshall's twin on the ground, and I only met him briefly once before. Sneaky twins. It was a lot of fun. I got to dye eggs with the kids and help pass out gifts after the Easter egg hunt. That's right. i'm not sure if it's just this family or all white people, but they their easter eggs have the name of presents inside them, and they get to collect their presents after the hunt. say what?!?! Gifts for doing an easter egg hunt? #whitepeople When i grew up, you hunted those eggs for ammunition so you can smash them on each other's heads! #mexicanpride We got root beer floats, yum. And while I was outside watching people play on the trampoline, like a ninja, Doug appeared out of no where on the trampoline. I was super impressed. Didn't see him coming. Doug is so funny, and he's their backyard neighbor. #hadnoidea

Then it was girl time. But first we needed our fake booze for the BYOB art class we were going to. I've been wanting to go to one of these for MONTHS! So I booked it up for us this weekend. The hardest part was finding a store near by. Of course there are tons of liquor stores...but we needed a Wal-Mart to get some Martinelli's. That was a little more difficult to get to.When we got there, I was surprised by the lack on instruction at the art class, but also surprised that my painting didn't turn out terrible.

We went in, chose from about 50 pictures which one we wanted to paint. We were given the colors and set free! After the base coat, you have to go blow dry the painting dry and then use chalk to draw what you are going to paint next. They said if you didn't finish in time you can come back some other time. Problem is, I'm not coming back anytime soon. Luckily, I finished. Our inner artist shown through our painting. We are awesome! Then we went for the next best part about girls night...cake. Erica promised me a cake when I came, and she did not disappoint. We went back for her to make the homemade icing, only to discover she was out of powdered sugar! What did I do? called ben to bring us some. duh. However, erica hates accepting help from others, so we ended up going over to Stine's where she has powdered sugar and ben had to wait an extra day to get cake. The cake was wonderfully delicious. And we had more Lia time, because Lia would not fall asleep! Poor little Lia.

Saturday morning was beautiful. I went to the temple with Stine & Erica for the first time. We've never made it all together before. It was great. Much needed peace and revelation happened.

After the temple, Erica and I went and hopped into our swimsuits and laid out by the pool for the rest of the afternoon. #sogood It was cloudy, but nice and warm. No sunburns for us. Sadly, Erica forgot some headphones, so she had to listen to the frat boys at the pool. #realtragedy Then we went to go get groceries because Erica was cooking us dinner! Except Stine cancelled on us. Sad. I really wanted her to finally meet Ben. We got back and Erica started cooking, and she sent me to bed because i was crazypants. I slept until right before Ben showed up. I was only incoherent for a bit after waking up luckily. We had a GREAT dinner with cake for dessert and a wonderful time talking and feeling judged by the imaginary hypothetical guest at our table as we tried to mesh different groups of friends. #dontmixfriendgroups Ben and Erica taught me the Wobble in an impromptu dance party. And we finally left to go to meet up with Stine & Jordan at the Mesa Temple Easter Pageant. Parking was terrible, so Ben dropped us off on a corner as he went to find parking. We managed to find Stine in the crowd and sit down in time for the BEST PART OF EASTER! His resurrection. Spoiler Alert: Jesus lives! It was great, and I love the Easter Pageant. We wandered off and Ben found us in front on the temple, waiting. Then two of my friend groups finally intermingled! It was quite entertaining. I'm such a good friend-matchmaker! We all went to Dairy Queen and had a marvelous time. After Stine & Jordan left, Ben said "I like that you have mean friends". lol. me and my friends tease each other quite often. Ben, Erica, & I stayed out a bit later and we shared our inner most thoughts and feelings and Ben dropped us off at Erica's. Erica and I stayed up until we started falling asleep, which wasn't much longer after being dropped off.

Sunday morning was quite pleasant  We went to 9am church at the Institute (my fav place on ASU campus) and it was a great service. I love how everyone is so musically gifted. The Spirit was there, and the message about the Atonement and of our living Savior was a powerful one. I really enjoyed it. Then it was time to hop on the plane back home to Texas. I read Clockwork Prince the whole plane ride back. I feel like book 2 is where Cassandra Clare really differentiates this trilogy her previous trilogy and the story becomes better (I acknowledge that there are now more than 3 in that series, but it irks me that she made it a trilogy and changed her mind a year later and wrote more). The plane ride was longer than anticipated, due to bad weather. I was tired and hungry as the shuttle driver taking me back to my car thought I was a teacher and then a secretary. Really? Would you like to stereotype me based on my sex some more? Men. When I got home, I had a nice surprise! Grandpa was there!!!!!!!!!!! Dear world, my grandpa is dabomb.com. We had a lot of fun and it was awesome. Especially when my mom, dad, and grandpa started trying to one-up each other on childhood stories. #grandpawon It was a great Easter weekend.

ps. As a book update. I stayed up super late Monday night to finish book 3, Clockwork Princess. LOVED IT! I cried the entire epilogue, although I am not sure why. It was perfect. I think I was crying from happiness of the perfection of the ending. I dont think I could have thought of something that wrapped everything up so nicely. And I wasn't expecting it. (I love surprises, but only when I don't know there is going to be a surprise, because my imagination always thinks of something cooler than the surprise) If only Mockingjay had that perfect of an ending, but that's beside the point.

pps. I really wanted to post the picture of ben and erica when we all fell asleep on Friday night, but decided not to because I dont want anyone to see it and for erica to feel more of the wrath of ben's fan club #understandable #prettypeopleproblems