an ode to women:
anyone who knows me knows i don't really love women. their gossip, their drama, their dating, their crying. i've never been one to be surrounded by lots of "girlfriends." i have one or two at a time and its suites me just fine. in the last year or two of my life, it seems, tho, its turning around!! a lifetime of disgruntled thoughts towards the members of my fellow sex is fading!! hooray!
-i have one lifetime girlfriend. laura. literally in sunbeams @ church together at age 3 and i have no recollection of life without her.
-i have one girlfriend from highschool. kelli. so alike and so opposite. the reason we probably get along is bc we just can't do without each other at this point. and why would i want to?
-i lived in an apartment at college with 6 girls. jana jamie jen reily camille & me. i love them. i'm not sure what possessed me to live with that much estrogen in the first place, but it was the best.
-jamie jayne anne. they put up with me. we don't talk all the time. maybe sometimes we're not as close. but i KNOW without a doubt each of them came into my life on purpose.
-i hang out with girls. i actually call them on the weekends to hang out. meredith was essentially my "date" for Mamma Mia.
-i work with almost all women. i ACTUALLY like roxann & lenzi, etc etc etc... this is more of a feat than you may know.
-girls have picnics. meredith raime & i actually PLANNED to hang out. in advance.
-i am now the proud aunt of 4 neices in a row. kaylaigh mae rachel abigail evelyn lillieth maren sophia. so much pink. so many small bows.
-i have 1 sister and 3 sister in laws. the women of our family just became full. my sister melissa is my bestfriend, pantry, and tv show updater.
i guess i just feel the need to shout out to the women in my life. i do a lot more crying now than i think i have in my whole life. i cry when i'm happy. why my body does this, we have no idea. i wear heels and jeans. yes i do. i like big earrings and babies, have ovaries, am finally growing into only wanting one boy at a time, and definately am proud to be a woman... most days ;)

thank goodness for friends and roommates with connections!! a bunch of us got dolled up and went to a free show this weekend!! i mean, i sing and dance all the time anyway, and it was impossible to hold still with ABBA playing, men in wetsuits running around, and women in platform shoes singing and dancing! it was so fun and just so relaxed. i have had ABBA in my head all day!! between the dancing, singing, indiscreetly hilarious sexual references, heels, jeans, big earrings, valet(wait... no they wouldn't let us valet LOL), the clubbing(wait no , we walked passed the club...), and the food(Meredith's snack bags lol) it was a night to remember. ah, vegas... see that girl, watch that scene, dig in the dancing queen...

go to this link. i love this photography. and the people in it. kevin and kellie anderson. :)
http://photographybytof.blogspot.com/

My cousin Chris is my only cousin on both sides exactly my age. Not only are we friends by force, but also by choice!! I spent exactly one whole day getting the most wicked butt soreness bc we rode on his motorcycle up and down the PCH= about 90 miles up and down the California coastline in 11 hours. Basically the best day ever and the company wasn't bad either. :)
My siblings rock. Good for me they also married people who rock. Kevin & Kellie had this "PhotoBoof" thing at their reception- it was awesome. In fact, I love my family. Despite ourselves. Oh, and my dad and 3 of his siblings was the cutest thing I'd ever seen.
Since it WAS Kevin's wedding weekend I have to say he's amazing and I love him.
And I'd just like to publicly say I was in California for 4 days and I saw ZERO clouds. Zip. Nada. Cero. Nil. ZERO people!! Lets just talk about how awesome that was for just a second. ...It was awesome. Here's some pics of the proof. Me and my cousins sportin' awesome lines.
Last but not least lets take a moment to talk about my cute grandpa. He's basically the bread and butter of old men. He plays tennis 3 days a week, the man is 83 c'mon! He's on wife number 3 (Ramona is a doll) and he's a lover of poetry. He recited the poem "Crystal Stair" as his advice to the newlyweds. No one is like my grandpa. Gosh I love him.

this is an orange from whole foods. in consideration of the biggest loser in our office, donut thursday became fruit thursday. lenzi brought orange and apples from whole foods. because they're just better. this is me holding the orange i peeled in ONE PEEL. literally. i know we often use the term "literally" and in fact it is NOT literal, as in "i literally died". NO you didn't die, obviously you're telling the story later. But i REALLY did peel this orange in one peel. lenzi helped me have photo proof! looks like the fruit gods blessed me this morning- may they grace you as well...

i'm reading eat pray love by elizabeth gilbert. lately on my lunch i have left the office, taken a blanket and my book and driven to the park that is on the same block. i literally sit in the sun for an hour reading, completely absorbed in my own thoughts and the thoughts budding from reading this book and relax. today i read a section of the book about the origins of the italian language. did you know it came from dante?! who knew! she quotes dante's divine comedy; the last part of the book where he faces the vision of God Himself. dante's description of Him is the title of this blog. it took me a minute to recover from the shock of it fitting so well, as i sat in the sunshine feeling the warmth of the sun, the breeze on my back and the grass between my toes. i could do nothing but sit smile and be filled.

Well, this weekend I headed up to Logan!! I was so excited I jetted out of work early and waited impatiently for the moment Wendy pulled in the drive so I could drive back out!!
CD of choice: OneRepublic + mix songs @ the end
Volume of choice: Very loud
Dance of choice: the kind you do when no one else is with you ;)
I drive straight to Richard's. Ice Cream. Movie. Sleep. Yes, on the floor(see title). Although Rich is an exceptionally clean boy I still don't trust the creepy college mattress, the unvacuumed floor is preferable. Wake up. Early. Laugh with my best friend. Hard. (We look hot in the morning, don't we!?)
Get up and snuggle @ Jamie's. Love Jamie more than words. Make big breakfast full of eggs and sausage and pancakes. Mmmm.. nobody makes a pancake like that Jamie Crane.. Swap Music. Laugh.
SURPRISE!! It's ANNE!! Love Anne. She's great. And funny and awesome. Swap boys stories and laugh. I love them.
I sobbed like a baby dropping them off before I headed down to Salt Lake. How could I possibly have been so blind and not seen how blessed I am!? I have the best friends in the whole universe. Honestly I have never felt so much love in 5 hours on a random Saturday as this day. There's nothing I wouldn't do for them!!
Oh and...
did I mention we danced? :)
Off on the road again!! YAY! I headed to Salt Lake to visit Jayne and Kevin(the permanent bf) ahh...love. Went shopping. Found UGLIEST clothes ever- so of COURSE we tried them on :)BUT I promised not to post public photos of Jayne, so here's me lookin' SMOkin'- but no seriously who designed this?
This is night 2 on the floor. Who wouldn't want to fall asleep talking into the middle of the night with Jayne Allen?? Kevin is a smart kid :)
Scraped snow off my car(!!??) and drove home this morning.
Whirlwind weekend. Best 36 hours ever. Full of love and 4 bestfriends. Still get choked up thinking about it. Can life get better? I submit that it CAN NOT!!

Ever feel like you are in a really good groove? You get out of bed on time you go to work you play you eat you love you laugh and go to bed to start all over again. Happy healthy wealthy wise. Things get done in a somewhat timely manner and you're rollin'.
THEN.
One morning you wake up later.
For some reason your bowl of cereal takes longer than its usual 90 seconds to consume. Your clothes don't fit. You're going to be late for work!
OH SHOOT! Its not 8 o clock its 9!! You are ALREADY late for work!!
From that day on the groove is gone! For a week you're catching up that one hour over the course of seven days. Its panic and stress and you feel like you're taking crazy pills!!
Then one Tuesday morning you wake up. The sun is shining. You are early to work. You get work done. You eat healthy lunch. The day flies by!
Ah...
It takes sometime to build it back up- but then your momentum comes back. And what a delightful feeling it is! :)

No kidding my parents are ridiculous- we love them, but they are! At least we can see Evey loves grandpa- How sweet is this picture! :) Cute baby...
It's Easter again- last Easter I made a ham with some friends and it was so fun! BUT watching my nephews literally tackle each other hunting for eggs, eating so much food until I'm going to burst, and sitting and laughing and enjoying each others company is hard to beat.
Basically I love my family and I'm glad to be close near them again :)

We were talking about these sick pure sugar eggs my dad used to hide. They were white not-really-marshmallow-but-kinda and kinda candy coated- They even came in a multitude of colors. Did anyone else eat these!? They were were so great!! They came individually wrapped and we usually found them under bushes (somewhat worse for wear and stale) for the duration of the summer. Funny. Now we think they are SO gross. ha.
p.s. Where are the eggs!? No WONDER they are so hard to find!

Today I went to my mom's house for lunch to eat with my Dad. I sure like that man. Nice to realize that the people you love most are happy when you just a minute out of your work day and call them. I love having my own desk and my own extension and being able to take 5 minutes out of my day to call him and tell him I love him- we are the desk job people in our family :) I guess I feel some funny bond bc of it!

Anyway, good moment of the day: watching my Pops cut up squash for salad for lunch.

I found my calling in life. (ha.) BUT I do love my job. Leavitt Insurance Agency. I'm so official. I'm "Account Administrator, Lindsey Anderson, Extension 4082." Who are YOU!? :)
No seriously though, I LOVE my job. Here's my desk.
Well, if you know me, I have this weird habit of being completely outgoing with people I don't know sometimes, and others I clam up. Mostly bc I want them to like me so I get nervous and shy. Basically I LOVE the people I work with and wanted them to like me so bad, so at first I was shy- but now I feel so much more comfortable!! Lenzi, Chad, Ben, Josh, Darion, Marcus, Roxann, and ME!- the dream team! (and a shout out to Ken too bc he shares my wall and has cute kids and a way funny blog)
It gets confusing being Lindsey the assistant to Lenzi, but we make it work. Long story short. I admit "Yes, I work in insurance."

old friends. chris stopped by in vegas and it was a great reminder of last year and the best busiest spring semester ever. rich is bomb as ever. dixon is engaged and getting married in may to shaylee. jamie is the best student teacher ever, kelli's baby is like 17 months old (holy crap!!) and reily is the only person i sent a real valentine to (she's in canada on a mish).
new friends. jen, shelley and april are awesome fun roomies. jenni is stellar. i wanna be as confident a dresser as meredith. phil is my hero, and jeff is an actual bon-i-fied nice guy. there is no possible way to get happier than this. sunshine + friends = crazy silly happiness

Lindsey: Seriously, I wanna go to Cali :)
Brother Kevin: Come on down, Hen!
Lindsey: Dude! I'm leaving tomorrow. And going to the beach!!
Bestfriend Richard: SickBird! I'm coming too!
(crazy fun weekend full of sun and walks and beach and sand and beach smell in all my clothes ensues)

Me and Wendy at Todd's graduation from USC in May. I love this picture. Isn't it funny that I bought those sunglasses in a gas station in Primm and Mosey and me got Wendy's at Marshalls bc they were the biggest ugliest ones there were and we LOVE them!? ha.