*update: I remember Monday now!! After 10 hours of work we went to a birthday dinner with Jerrae and Dallin’s mama and sisters. They crack me up.

Saturday my boss was so sweet as to let me off work, so us 4 sisters bought the biggest pancake I have ever seen.  Afterwards, I met the Samuelsons at the pound {so heartbreaking} and enjoyed some craved Mexican food.  Dallin and I read through his hilarious dream journal and shopped around an old-fashioned candy store. That night, we joined the cousins at the Temple Lights.


Saying goodbye was so hard.

upon my return from the ultrasound. what a trooper he is, keeping me company till 4 AM by text.

This Thanksgiving I was grateful to finally be home for the holidays. 3 years is quite a long time to be away for the day of gratitude... but we made up for it this year as almost the entire Lundgreen extended family joined up for turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie.  Screw all that previous dieting and goal-achieving-- this food was just too all-american-good to be true!  Kids 11-23 sat at one table and the "adults" at the other. We went on a walk around a riparion and proved the insanity of Arizona weather by swimming {and whilst the hot tub got too warm, the normal pool felt amazing}.
Not my brightest moment: drinking a blue Mt Dew slurpee right before family pictures. I tried not to laugh as I smiled with closed mouth, but some people like John & Carolyn can be just too darn funny.

 Later, I headed from one end of town to the other to meet Dallin's extended family.  {I made my awkward entrance with a puffy red face; who woulda thought there would be two freeway exits with the same name? I totally got lost and then had a meltdown when I almost crashed my car}.  Dallin's aunt was so kind as to take a dozen of us to the movies to see Justice League; other fun included chasing the dogs, watching Pirates {which I once, on my mission, had the agony of being turned on behind my back at a member's house}and seeing how much Dallin and his mama squirmed when non-blood-related folk such as his brother-in-law and myself ate raw cookie dough... as if that's a crime, instead of simply the BEST part of cookies.

I love weekends.  I guess that statement shouldn't be too extraordinary, but really after a week of hard work and midterm exams, it's nice to just have absolutely nothing to do.  Along with Friday night 90's remakes with mom, another round at the movies on Saturday with Sophie, some well-earned naps and a trip to the telescope.... the weekend really got spiced up at 10:00 PM with a sudden gas leak.  So we changed out of our pajamas and took a field trip to the grocery store.  It never ceases to amaze me how hilarious some of my siblings can be... especially when it's approaching midnight.  Mom had incredible patience to withstand the kids' late night cravings {everything looks delicious when you go to the store to kill time}... but we lucked out when she took us to McDonalds for some cones.  They sang cat food commercial jingles the whole way through the drive through. 

I remember when I was a freshman at BYU-H and all my RM guyfriends would talk about "the mish" as if it were some sort of club.  They loved their missions, and the more time I spent with them the more giddy I was about leaving to England.  Now, I have fallen into that same habit as them: talking about the mish. ALL. THE. TIME.  Whenever I'm with other RMs, we spend the entire time gushing over the people, the culturse, the teaching experiences and the missionary lifestyles of our different missions.
This past week I got to give a presentation to the youth.  I wore my dirndl, decked the table with souvenirs, projected some of my favorite mission blog posts, and got them guessing about the weirdest food I ate on my mission (answer: brain jello).  Among many things, I told all the youth that they needed to start preparing for their missions by, for example, learning how to cook.  I specified that peanut butter sandwiches and Mac'n'Cheese don't count cause many countries don't have such foods.... and every group without fail asked me in desperate hope, "WHAT ABOUT RAMEN?!"  *facepalm*
Needless to say, I am ECSTATIC to return to my mission.  

 Phoenix isn't quite the same, but it's getting there.  Tall buildings, one-lane traffic, thick crowds-- it hits some of those requirements for being chaotically interesting.  Even better, the first Friday of every month, ALL the art exhibits are free.